Out today, 'Comrade’ is the third album from Gothenburg, Sweden-based DIY project Routine Death.

The new record from husband and wife duo Lisa and Dustin Zozaya, their first since 2019, is released September 1st 2023 via Fuzz Club. The record journeys through washed-out lo-fi dream-pop and shoegaze walls-of-sound, by way of ethereal ambient, glitched-out electronics and new experiments with samples and field recordings. You can pick up the vinyl here and stream it at all the usual spots. 

Routine Death originally chronicled the joint life of Lisa and Dustin as they went from complete separation to integration. The band’s debut, ‘Parallel Universes’ (2018), was recorded entirely at a distance: with Dustin living in Austin TX (where he co-founded and formerly played in Holy Wave) and Lisa in Gothenburg, Sweden. The second effort, ‘2 Weeks to 4 Months’ (2019), reflected the uncertain time dealing with immigration as Dustin prepared to leave the US and having the state involved in an intimate relationship. 

Now completely based in Gothenburg, Dustin says that ‘Comrade’ marks a whole new chapter for Routine Death: “The original purpose of the project was to give me and Lisa something to do together while we live on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Because we recorded alone, in our respective bedrooms, the songs became an intimate detailing of our time living apart. After I moved to Sweden and our lives came together, there was really no need for the project to continue in the same way.”Going forward, the Zozaya’s sought to expand the project to include other collaborators within the Swedish underground and explore the possibilities to be found in camaraderie. 

“When we found out we were going to have a kid, I started referring to the baby as ‘the comrade’, and this nickname sparked the rethinking of Routine Death. It was time to start collaborating with other musicians and going deeper into different approaches to music, like sampling and using field recordings taken from around Gothenburg. This LP was still recorded DIY in intimate settings, but there are contributions and collaborations with other musicians and friends, including the comrade.”