The Catastrophist

In 2016, when The Catastrophist was released, Tortoise hadn't released an album since 2009's Beacons of Ancestorship. The album features vocals from Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley (on "Yonder Blue") and U.S. Maple/Dead Rider's Todd Rittmann (on a cover of David Essex's "Rock On").The album's initial inspiration came after they received a commission from the City of Chicago in 2010. The band were asked to create music "rooted in its ties to the area's noted jazz and improvised music communities." They performed some "loose themes" live and eventually turned them into something "orchestrated and complex" for the album.