Hunters Chorus is a solo endeavor by composer and multi-instrumentalist Ramon Fermin, who also happens to be the lead guitarist of Sun Kil Moon for this current album cycle. Fittingly, Hunters Chorus’ debut album Old Growler, a tribute to Ramon’s late dog Jasmine, is dropping next month via Mark Kozelek’s Caldo Verde Records. The instrumental album finds Ramon on guitar and bass, his friend Haig Shirinian on drums, and Jack Shirley (best known for his work on Deafheaven’s Sunbather) on the boards.

Today we’re bringing you the track “Wish,” which is one of the album’s harder rocking spots. Some pieces on Old Growler, such as the intro and closer, are serene soundscapes of unaccompanied electric and acoustic guitar, whereas a track like “Wish” is very much in the spirit of late-period Red House Painters’ heaviest moments. Obviously this song is without Mark’s aching baritone, but it occupies that liminal space between classic rock and post-rock that some of Blue Guitar and Old Ramon did… the title of the latter is now a kind of funny coincidence.

Just reading about Old Growler‘s concept, one might expect something along the lines of the first Silver Mt. Zion album and brace for the waterworks, but “Wish” offers something quite a bit more upbeat. It’s a solid piece of instrumental rock, and the anthemic guitar leads and soloing that emerge in its last phase have me looking forward to Ramon’s contributions to this November’s Sun Kil Moon album. His fingerprints are certainly all over the latest single, “Linda Blair.”

Old Growler gets unleashed on October 19 and can be pre-ordered here.

-Austen