Sylvan Esso

Sylvan Esso took shape in Durham, North Carolina, when singer-songwriter Amelia Meath of the Appalachian indie folk trio Mountain Man joined forces with electronic producer Nick Sanborn, who records as Made of Oak and supplies bass for rootsy psych-rockers Megafaun. Their partnership yields atmospheric, hard-to-pin-down electro-folk-pop that draws equally from each artist’s strengths. The self-titled debut, which registered on Billboard, appeared in 2014, and the follow-up long-player What Now earned the duo a 2017 Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Their third album, the introspective Free Love, arrived in 2020, secured another Grammy nod, and became their third consecutive release to land in the upper half of the Billboard 200. In 2022 the pair issued No Rules Sandy, further integrating analog and electronic textures, then marked the tenth anniversary of their first record with a deluxe double-LP edition in 2024.

The project began in 2013, a year after Sanborn gave Meath a particularly affecting remix he had made of “Play It Right,” a song she had written for Mountain Man. Their Partisan Records debut Sylvan Esso surfaced in early 2014 and reached the Billboard 200’s Top 40 on the back of the singles “Hey Mami” and “Coffee,” the latter earning the duo their first national television appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Early 2017 brought the new tracks “Radio” and “Kick Jump Twist,” setting the stage for What Now, which followed later that year and received a Grammy nomination. After extensive touring, they teamed with Collections of Colonies of Bees for a 2018 cover of Califone’s “Funeral Singers.”

The live album With surfaced in 2020 as the audio companion to a concert documentary that streamed online around the same time. Later that year the reflective third studio album Free Love appeared and earned a Best Dance/Electronic Grammy nomination. In 2021 the duo launched the independent Psychic Hotline label, releasing projects by Sam Gendel, Ohmme, Bartees Strange, and others. August 2022 saw the arrival of their fourth studio album No Rules Sandy, which featured saxophone contributions from Gendel, drumming by TJ Maiani, and string arrangements by Gabriel Kahane. A deluxe double-LP reissue of the debut album came out in 2024 to mark its tenth anniversary, containing the original tracks, the bonus singles “Jaime’s Song” and “The Cosmos,” and new remixes by Rick Wade, Dntel, Helado Negro, Charles Spearin, Hercules & Love Affair, and J Rocc.