audiobooks

Venerable producer, mixer, and engineer David Wrench joins forces with singer, visual artist, and model Evangeline Ling to create arty post-punk under the name audiobooks. Their partnership originated in spontaneous studio improvisations that coalesced into the 2018 debut album Now! (In a Minute), fusing danceable synth pop with sonic experiments and theatrical sketches. The 2021 successor Astro Tough tightened its emphasis on Wrench’s club-oriented post-punk backings alongside Ling’s theatrical spoken-word storytelling.

While setting up a modular synth rig inside his East London studio, Wrench—whose extensive discography encompasses mixing work for David Byrne, FKA twigs, and Caribou plus production credits with the Charlatans UK and Let’s Eat Grandma—encountered Ling at a shared acquaintance’s gathering. Intrigued by the equipment, she joined him for an initial improvisation session that swiftly yielded several complete tracks. They kept developing material together, and within months Heavenly Recordings signed them, issuing the Gothenburg EP in April 2018. Their first full-length, Now! (In a Minute), followed that October on the same label, with the more unified Astro Tough arriving in 2021.