After nearly 20 years of knowing one another, the collaboration between Nick Sanborn and Chris Rosenau seemed inevitable but ended up accidental, an Eaux Claires music-festival lark that had immediate chemistry. As they were playing that first show, they realized they were already making a record. They reconvened in a small cottage in North Carolina in 2017 to finish what was started. They recorded the improvisations, kept the working mixes and titles, as well as the bird songs and traffic sounds that drifted into the microphones. The result was 2019’s Bluebird, a little five-track wonder that made you feel like you were sitting in the room between them, smiling as they found their wordless rapport.
Two years later, Rosenau (Volcano Choir, Collections of Colonies of Bees) and Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made of Oak) got together again. They had fun during round two, but the sessions were neither as carefree as that first attempt nor more focused in a way that felt compelling and new. The pair shelved those pieces to try again when the time seemed right. Then there was a pandemic. There were tours. There were other records. There was life at large. By the time Rosenau ventured back to Betty’s (Sylvan Esso’s studio in the North Carolina woods) to try again, four years had flashed past.
For the absorbing follow-up, 2026’s simply titled Two, they “unprepared,” Rosenau arriving to the sessions with a novel guitar tuning he’d never used and Sanborn with a reconfigured electronics rig that forced him to abandon old patterns. The result feels like sitting alongside two old friends as they surprise one another with unheard stories from their recent pasts and ideas for their futures.
The night before the duo wrote “Walrus,” Sanborn had performed at a rave with his techno duo GRRL x Made of Oak. Of the track, Rosenau writes, “Honestly, the approach on this track was ‘Ok! Saturday night… Let’s party!’ It all felt real good. From there, we got Nick’s gear back up from the night before, followed our process, and went for it. I remember Nick turning into an octopus in front of my eyes as he wrangled both the modular rig he had set up for this one, as well as the insane drum machine situation.”
Two is set to be released physically in indie record stores on March 6 via Psychic Hotline, with digital street date following on March 20.
About Rosenau & Sanborn
Rosenau & Sanborn is a duo composed of Chris Rosenau (Volcano Choir, Collections Of Colonies Of Bees) and Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Megafaun, Made Of Oak). The pair have been friends and collaborators for years, however it wasn’t until they played an improvised set together at 2015’s Eaux Claires music festival that they realized the potential of making a record together. Two, the duo’s second project together, was recorded in 2024 at Betty’s in North Carolina.
Praise for Rosenau & Sanborn:
“The duo’s synths buzz and bounce around like the cogs in a whirring machine.” – NPR All Songs Considered
“Bluebird sounds like what would happen if you subtracted the songs from Collections of Colonies of Bees or Sylvan Esso – stretched to tectonic scales with Rosenau’s open-ended acoustic lines and Sanborn’s burbling synth processing.” – Indy Week
“On ‘Saturday,’ the duo’s synths warble and flicker like desperate radio transmissions while occasional acoustic guitar plucks ground it back to earth, granting a sense of subconscious ease.” – Stereogum
