Michael Cormier returns with intricate, intimate solo album More Light!!

Michael Cormier will return with his second solo record, More Light!!, this summer. The Philly-based multi-instrumentalist writes intricate folk songs — when he’s not playing with the bands Friendship and Hour, co-running the indie folk label Dear Life Records, and working as a bread baker.

“It feels like we can only control how we choose to notice things, like the way the light hits something,” Cormier says of the introspective and observant songs on the new record. “It’s about treating our own perceptions as an artistic pursuit.”

The first single, “Degradation” is out now and accompanied by a collection of home video footage from Cormier’s early childhood. Inspired by anxiety-riddled sleepless nights, Cormier says the song “felt like a way to speak my irrational fears into existence while trying to reframe them in a more life-affirming way.”

Cormier collaborated remotely on More Light!! with musician friends including producer Lucas Knapp, Lina Tullgren, Erika Nininger, Lou Turner, Heeyoon Won, Will Henriksen, Wendy Eisenberg, Meghan O’Leary, Frank Meadows and Friendship members Dan Wriggins, Jon Samuels and Pete Gill. The album comes out June 25 via Dear Life Records.