Magdalena Bay

Magdalena Bay creates confessional, contagious pop like you’ve never heard before. Pitchfork said about the duo: “…Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin’s fuzzy, rococo synthpop confections have a magic power: They sound like whatever you grew up with, whenever that was.”

Magdalena Bay have become known for their creative live performances catching the eye of artists that they have long been inspired by including: Charli XCX, Flume, and Porter Robinson, all of whom they have done opening slots for.

Receiving high praise from influential media outlets including The Fader, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan and more, Magdalena Bay are enjoying a breakthrough year finishing their first headlining US tour, performing at Coachella and preparing for another first playing Lollapalooza later this summer.

Imaginal Disk, the sophomore album from acclaimed duo Magdalena Bay written and produced in full by Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, was released August 23 via Mom+Pop Music.

Written mostly from sketches begun during gaps in touring and recorded at the band’s home studio in Los Angeles, Imaginal Disk keeps one foot firmly in the future while putting a fresh spin on the recent past, drawing on an eclectic list of inspirations such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Jean-Paul Sartre’s plays, The Beatles, Lacanian psychoanalysis, In Rainbows and more. The Imaginal Disk visual universe follows the story of True—played by the band’s Mica Tenenbaum—as she learns what it means to be human after receiving a consciousness upgrade in the form of an “imaginal disk” inserted into her forehead. Riffing on the real idea of imaginal discs in nature—wherein a caterpillar dissolves itself into a liquid form before reshaping itself into a butterfly—the album cheekily interrogates the existential questions that arise when pondering the nature of human consciousness.

Imaginal Disk features singles “That’s My Floor,” “Tunnel Vision,” “Image,” which Rolling Stone praised as a “ a spaced-out dancefloor delight,” and “Death & Romance,” which Vulture praised as “kaleidoscopic,” while PAPER commended the duo for another “glassy, sprawling prog-pop odyssey that builds from a tightly wound jam into something seemingly designed to hit the back walls of stadiums.” 

To celebrate the album’s release, the band will hit the road for The Imaginal Mystery Tour next month, an extensive run of headline shows with stops in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London and more.