Beings, New Band Featuring Steve Gunn and Shahzad Ismaily, Announce Debut Album, Share Songs: Listen

Guitarist Steve Gunn; bassist and synthesizer player Shahzad Ismaily; saxophonist, guitarist, and vocalist Zoh Amba; and drummer Jim White have come together to form the new band Beings. On June 7, the New York quartet will release its debut album, There Is a Garden, via No Quarter. Below, listen to Beings’ first two songs, “Flowers That Talk” and “Happy to Be.”

Beings first started coming together in summer 2022 when Shahzad Ismaily asked Zoh Amba to perform with him at Germany’s Monheim Triennale. “It really changed my life and my career,” Amba told Arielle Gordon in an interview for Stereogum. Eventually, Steve Gunn and Jim White joined the fray in Brooklyn, culminating in the band’s debut show last summer.

In a press release, Ismaily added, “The four of us really fell into something amalgamated that was really spiritually sound and really evocative, really environmental. And that doesn’t always take place, even if the players individually have those qualities. Everyone was able to find their space that was quite distinct from one another… and it really is part of why the group works so well.”

There Is a Garden will follow a 2022 album from Zoh Amba (Bhakti), 2023 full-lengths from Gunn and Ismaily (Let the Moon Be a Planet and Love in Exile, respectively), and White’s 2024 debut solo studio album (All Hits: Memories). Coming up, White will release a new album with Marisa Anderson on May 10 (Swallowtail) and a new Dirty Three album on June 28 (Love Changes Everything).

Check out “A Conversation With Improvisational Geniuses Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily.”