The music of Brooklyn’s Zachary Cale is always touching, visceral and alive with passion, but his upcoming record, Love’s Work, doubles down on these charming qualities and leaves a lasting impression after every listen.

Due out on October third, this album is packed with introspectively lush arrangements that swell with a wistful tenderness. The record is an all-instrumental affair that saunters along with meditative fingerstyle guitar and a breezy backing of piano, synths, pedal steel and violins. With the talents of some seriously skilled improvisers and intuitive instrumentalists, like pedal steel guru J.R. Bohannon, drummer Jeremy Gustin and violinists Arun Ramamurthy and Trina Basu, filling out the sound behind Cale’s acoustic fingerpicking, this record is bound to be an absolute delight to the ears for fans of a vast array of different styles and genres.

Take the album’s first available single, “Northwestern,” for example. Basu and Raamurthy open the track by playing their instruments like mountain fiddles before a splash-like cymbal crash ushers in a driving beat, twinkling piano (provided by Emergency Group’s Robert Boston) and slinky bass lines (by Shahzad Ismaily) and a lattice-work like fingerpicking pattern played beautifully by Cale. This gorgeous song can delight those who love anything from old time string music to folk pop and acoustic ambient soundscapes and more. Check it out:

This is an arresting album rich with emotional weight, complicated inward musings and a relatable sense of warmth. May it be a balm for your soul every time you play it.

Click here to preorder it on vinyl or digital today.

-KH