Modern Nature have announced a new seven-track mini-album called Annual, due for release by Bella Union on June 5.

Watch a video for lead track “Flourish” below:

Annual was recorded in December 2019 at Gizzard Studio in London, with Jack Cooper joined by saxophonist Jeff Tobias and percussionist Jim Wallis (keyboardist Will Young didn’t appear this time, concentrating on his work with Beak). The album features guest vocals from Kayla Cohen of Itasca on “Harvest”.

Cooper explains how Annual came about: “Towards the end of 2018, I began filling a new diary with words, observations from walks, descriptions of events, thoughts…free associative streams of just… stuff. Reading back, as the year progressed from winter to spring, the tone of the diary seemed to change as well… optimism crept in, brightness and then things began to dip as autumn approached… warmth, isolation again and into winter.

“I split the diary into four seasons and used them as the template for the four main songs. The shorter instrumental songs on the record are meant to signify specific events and transitions from one season to the next. I figured it wouldn’t be a very long record, but to me it stands up next to [2019’s] How To Live in every way.”

Pre-order Annual here.