New Full-Length Nocturnal Birding Out October 3

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After celebrating 20 years since the inception of AUTHOR & PUNISHER in 2024, founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone embraces the project's broadest scope to-date with Nocturnal Birding, out October 3, 2025.

Today, AUTHOR & PUNISHER shares the official video for "Thrush" from Nocturnal Birding. Watch the full video (co-directed by Lucile Lejoly & Arnaud Fournier) on KNAC.COM HERE.

TRISTAN SHONE comments on the "Thrush" video:

"This song is really the epitome of this album. When I heard the wood thrush song, it immediately made me think of NEUROSIS or Jesu...the melodic heart wrenching tracks like "The Last You'll Know". The Wood Thrush made this one easy for me: I just followed the chord progression of the bird exactly.

I reached out to Lucile because I found her tattoo artwork and really loved the medieval style mixed with some Elden Ring vibes. Over the next 8 months we forged an artistic relationship that resulted in the beautiful album artwork and video. Alongside creative partner Arnaud Fournier, the two have made an epic work that elevates the song. I think I will cry when I play this live first (like when I first played The Barge or Glorybox) because it is really songs like this that drive me to keep making music."

Nocturnal Birding is out October 3, 2025 on LP/CD/Streaming via Relapse Records.

As stated in the album's credits, Nocturnal Birding is "dedicated to those who have lost their lives traveling across the border from Mexico to the USA through a cruel policy of prevention by deterrence. This land is not ours to hold onto nor was it ours to take."

Tristan Shone has welcomed collaborators in the past, but guitarist Doug Sabolick (Ecstatic Vision, Plaque Marks, A Life Once Lost) is the first genuine bandmate in AUTHOR & PUNISHER contributing creatively on guitar in ways that shape the persona of Nocturnal Birding, complementing Shone in melody and wrought tonal heft.

In addition to the strong and poignant messaging contained throughout the music, lyrics and artwork, Nocturnal Birding sees Tristan Shone synergizing with an array of artists from across the globe like never before in his career. From the artwork, meticulously designed by French artist Lucile Lejoly (Chat Pile, Roadburn Festival) to the mixing and mastering by Will Putney (Knocked Loose, Heriot, Body Count, Machine Head) to the musical guest appearances from France's Fange, Indonesia's Kuntari, and New York City's Megan Oztrosits of COUCH SLUT, these outer creative inputs shine throughout the work.

Shone continues about the new album, "I've been doing my waterdrop work, which has been eye-opening for me. Border Angels is a group that drops water along the US/Mexico border. Two years ago, they opened up for volunteers again and I got to go out on a hike with them. I was out in Jacumba where I started doing hikes once a month, dropping water and getting to know some people, and I've been doing it ever since. It was very humbling and there was always this soundtrack of the birds out there through different seasons. For me it was an awakening: my eyes and ears were open to nature and this cruel and unnecessary humanitarian crisis at the border."

Removing himself from an artistic comfort zone proved fruitful inspiration. There is literal birdsong all over Nocturnal Birding, and transposing those melodies and rhythms to guitar became the root of the material, representing a rare coming together of the natural world and mechanized sounds.

NOCTURNAL BIRDING TRACKLIST:

• "Meadowlark"
• "Titanis" (ft. Kuntari)
• "Mute Swan" (ft. Megan Oztrosits of Couch Slut)
• "Black Storm Petrel" (ft. Fange)
• "Titmouse"
• "Titmice"
• "Rook"
• "Thrush"