{"id":18682,"date":"2022-03-08T18:12:31","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T18:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=18682"},"modified":"2022-03-08T18:12:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T18:12:31","slug":"the-utopia-strong-announce-second-album-international-treasure-and-share-first-single-shepherdess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=18682","title":{"rendered":"The Utopia Strong announce second album &#8216;International Treasure&#8217; and share first single &#8216;Shepherdess&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_18684\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18684\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18684\" src=\"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/The-Utopia-Strong-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/The-Utopia-Strong-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/castthedice.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/The-Utopia-Strong-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-18684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: David Ryder Prangley<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Founded as an exciting synth project, <a href=\"https:\/\/theutopiastrong.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Utopia Strong<\/a> began experimenting and composing together in early 2018 and the following year released their self-titled debut album, which was one of favourite <a href=\"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/?p=15815\">Albums of 2019<\/a>. Three years on, the trio that brings together Kavus Torabi (Gong \/ Cardiacs \/ Knifeworld \/ Guapo), Michael York (Coil \/ Teleplasmiste \/ Guapo) and former Snooker champion Steve Davis, is ready to take the world by storm with their second studio album. Entitled <em>International Treasure<\/em>, the record is set for release on June 10th through <a href=\"https:\/\/rocketrecordings.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rocket Recordings<\/a> and they have today shared the first single, the otherworldly &#8216;Shepherdess&#8217;. The upcoming album reflects the tight bond they&#8217;ve developed as a creative collective whilst exploring new territories and stepping out of their comfort zone. As the press release details, &#8220;Torabi\u2019s purchase of a guzheng (a Chinese plucked zither) led to Shepherdess\u2019s lambent allure and York\u2019s spectacular and evolving array of pipes and wind instruments contributed just as much as his ruthless editing.&#8221; Speaking about his role, Davis commented:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cI see myself as a strong midfielder, or a centre back. Kavus and Mike are like the Lionel Messi or Ronaldo of the equation, and I\u2019m setting situations up for them\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For a taste of <em>International Treasure<\/em>, check out the accompanying visualiser for &#8216;Shepherdess&#8217; now.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UIiT8klA_-U\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founded as an exciting synth project, The Utopia Strong began experimenting and composing together in early 2018 and the following year released their self-titled debut album, which was one of favourite Albums of 2019. Three years on, the trio that brings together Kavus Torabi (Gong \/ Cardiacs \/ Knifeworld \/ Guapo), Michael York (Coil \/ [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2096],"class_list":["post-18682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-the-utopia-strong"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18682"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18686,"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18682\/revisions\/18686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castthedice.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}