Devendra Banhart's new album, Ma, is out now on Nonesuch Records. This is Banhart's first album since 2016's Ape in Pink Marble. Ma, bursting with tender, autobiographical vignettes, displays a shift from the sonic experimentation of his previous albums to an intricate, captivating story-telling and emotional intimacy. Banhart favors organic sounds to accompany his voice and guitar, the arrangements bolstered by strings, woodwinds, brass, and keyboards. To pick up a copy, head to your local record store, Amazon, iTunes, and the Nonesuch Store; the album can also be heard on Spotify and Apple Music.

Banhart marks the release by debuting a new video for his Carole King-inspired album track, “Taking a Page,” filmed by The Bardos during his recent trip to Nepal:

Devendra says of the video:

“See my brains ooze out in this Trekker friendly music video for “Taking a Page.” Filmed in Nepal. More specifically in Kathmandu, Muktinath, Ranipauwa, Pokhara, and a few remote parts of upper and lower Mustang. In it you will find:

My monk friend Moti doing make up for the first time...
Neten Chockling Rinpoche liberating a few yaks (roam free wild sisters and hermanos!)
Lindsay from the Bardos!
A bloody shower!
Boudanath Stupa!
Sky Caves!
The chords to Iced Honey by Metallica and Lou Reed
Free Jazz

"Ultimately, This is a love letter to Nepal! A land of truly mystical proportions that must be experienced!”

This is "sublimely understated, border-blurring folk rock," the Los Angeles Times says of the album. "There is a truth and authenticity to the songs via their warmth and generosity," says MOJO in its four-star review. "These are vignettes of lived experiences. Groovy and moving, in all the right directions." "Banhart's singular world remains as intoxicating as ever on the earthly, analogue-sounding Ma," says Q in its four-star review. "It feels as if all of human life is here."

The new album comprises "the most cohesive songs and sophisticated arrangements that Banhart has delivered to date," says Paste magazine. "It’s a chamber-pop record, full of string arrangements and woodwinds alongside acoustic guitars, bass and drums ...Banhart remains the distinctive artist he’s always been." "It's "a tender, beautiful meditation on the bonds that ties us together," says PopMatters. "His imagination is limitless in the best sense and extends from one to one connections to being part of the cosmos."

"The tenth album from Devendra Banhart opens with him singing the lines 'Is this nice? Do you like it?' and after listening to the thirteen songs that follow it's hard not to answer very much in the affirmative," says musicOMH in its four-star review.

The simply titled Ma is Devendra Banhart's third album for Nonesuch, one that addresses—often in a beguilingly oblique way—the unconditional nature of maternal love, the desire to nurture, the passing down of wisdom, the longing to establish the relationship of mother to child, and the consequences of that bond being broken. Banhart doesn't approach the album's maternal theme in a literal way; rather, by contemplating it, alluding to it, regarding the concept of motherhood from different angles, he has fashioned an album of multiple, intertwining narratives. Its concerns are both personal and global, with subtly autobiographical looks at life and death and ruminations about the precarious state of the world. The many lighthearted moments of Ma are balanced by deeply melancholic, even somber ones. Three tracks are in Spanish, the language that is as much Banhart's native tongue as English, and one in Portuguese.

Banhart, who spent his childhood in Venezuela, has been profoundly affected by the poverty and despair he's witnessed there. His concern over the dire situation in his motherland drew him back to the Spanish language: "My brother is in Venezuela, my cousins, my aunts and uncles. They are just holding their breath, in gridlock standstill.There's this helplessness. This place that has been a mother to you, that you're a mother to as well, and it's suffering so much. There is nothing you can do but send out love and remain in that sorrowful state."

Working with Grammy Award–winning producer-musician and longtime musical compadre Noah Georgeson, the two started this particular musical journey when they were invited to record in a special room at a venerable old temple in Kyoto, after a short Asian tour. That served as a musical and spiritual prelude to what was to come. Back in California, they recorded at 64 Sound and Sea Horse Studios in Los Angeles and Anderson Canyon in Big Sur. Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon contributes background vocals on "Now All Gone" and Banhart's mentor, muse, and dear friend, the folk legend Vashti Bunyan, duets with him on "Will I See You Tonight." Notes Banhart, "Vashti is the archetype of the mother, one of the most important people in my life. It was so beautiful to sing this duet with her."

Banhart recently announced a twenty-four city North American tour for autumn 2019, beginning October 15 in Ventura, CA. This will be his first tour of North America since 2017. Banhart has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every US ticket sold (excluding Austin) will go to World Central Kitchen, an organization founded by José Andrés to fight hunger around the world. With every ticket bought in Canada, $1 will go to support Rainbow Railroad to help LGBTI people around the world escape persecution and violence.

DEVENDRA BANHART ON TOUR