Andrew Lipke channels social isolation into Songs from The Quarantine

Like many musicians, Andrew Lipke is finding some comfort in songwriting during these strange and uncertain times. The Philly-based composer, arranger, performer, and producer just released Songs from The Quarantine, a collection of five new tracks written over the last few weeks of social isolation.

Although Lipke calls it the “album I had no idea I’d be making,” he’s dived into the project wholeheartedly, sharing frequent updates of his songwriting on social media. Social distance forces creative approaches to collaboration — for Lipke, that’s looked like sharing his works-in-progress via Dropbox for fellow musicians to add harmonies, instrumentation, and even lyrics, as well as enlisting his daughters Arabelle and Scarlett to sing lead vocals on the relatable-to-many track “Bored.” Listen to the EP below via Bandcamp.

Songs from The Quarantine comes just as Lipke is readying to release Kamala & The Child People, his new full-length album that explores themes from Herman Hesse’s novel Siddhartha. It comes out May 1 and can be pre-ordered here.