Singer Zee Avi released her latest album “ghostbird” today. The 11 track album is her second and was funded with the help of fans. The opening track “Swell Window” for ghostbird is the gorgeous track that started the journey. “It’s a song about seizing the moment,” she says, “and for me, a new direction and a new voice came and stayed.” Avi started writing Ghostbird in her Brooklyn kitchen last summer, but followed the wind to the balmy waters of the Florida Everglades where she found endless musings. “… with absolute silence and calmness.” It only took two weeks to lay down the 11 tracks on Ghostbird (it means “Burung Hantu” which means owl in Avi’s native language), including the closing number on the album, “Stay In The Clouds,” a new addition that was written on the last day of recording. This album lead Avi to new ideas. “Siboh Kitak Nangis” which translates to “Don’t You Cry,” is the first song in Avi’s dialect on an international album and the poppy groove of “The Book of Morris Johnson” is the first time she has written new music to accompany someone else’s words. “Morris Johnson” was inspired by a Floridian folk artist whose paintings of animals and accompanying text about their instinctual lives “capture naiveté and innocence and enthusiasm,” Avi says. After buying a few of his pieces at an art show, Avi called him up and said, “Morris, I’m ready to be your disciple, I’m ready to turn your words into a song.” The track “Anchor” is one of the handful of songs that made the album from Avi’s New York writing sessions and also what Zee refers to as a “premonition track,” and another NYC track, “Concrete Wall,” is a striking a cappella that features contributions from beloved turntable god Cut Chemist. And yes, she is well aware June has 30 days rather than 31 (the song “31 Days” was inspired by a couch-surfing friend who lamented, ” ‘I was homeless for 31 days in June.’ “) Every song has a different mood, every song is a different voice, every song is a different story,” Avi explains. But the idea of the Ghostbird unites the album, and Avi has tucked an owl call into a few tracks on the disc, “So it’s a little scavenger hunt when you listen to it.”

Here’s the complete track listing for Zee Avi’s ghostbird:

1. Swell Window
2. Anchor
3. 31 Days
4. Milestone Moon
5. Siboh Kitak Nangis
6. The Book of Morris Johnson
7. Madness
8. Bag of Gold
9. Concrete Wall
10. Roll Your Head in the Sun
11. Stay in the Clouds

You can download the album on

Zee Avi performs songs from her ghostbird album