Posted in Whathaveyou on June 12th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
What’s ‘Generator Party’ at Giant Rock at the end of this tour? Is that an actual generator party out in the desert — some codified version of the renegade setups of the ’80s and ’90s — or something else? Is it a fest? A venue? I don’t know. I’m curious, that’s all.
Author & Punisher‘s new video for “Black Storm Petrel” was filmed live in Warsaw, Poland, at VooDoo Club, and wouldn’t you know it, the clip’s unveiling and the tour of the Pacific Seaboard the two-piece just announced come even as they make ready to embark on their current UK/Euro run, supporting 2025’s duly-flattening Nocturnal Birding (review here). Timing is everything. Tristan Shone and Doug Sabolick embark on that tour June 23, where the new-announced shows are for September, so make sure you know where to be when.
The PR wire has it thusly:
AUTHOR & PUNISHER: Announce Fall US & Canada 2026 Headline Tour
Share “Black Storm Petrel” (ft. Fange) Live 4K Video
New Full-Length Nocturnal Birding Out Now on LP/CD/Streaming
After celebrating 20 years since the inception of AUTHOR & PUNISHER in 2024, founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone embraces the project’s broadest scope to date with the crushing Nocturnal Birding, out now via Relapse Records.
Today, AUTHOR & PUNISHER announces US Fall 2026 headline tour dates further celebrating Nocturnal Birding! Support from Guiltless on all dates.
Additionally, AUTHOR & PUNISHER shares the official 4K live performance video for “Black Storm Petrel” from Nocturnal Birding. The video was filmed live in Warsaw, PL @ VooDoo Club with FANGE, who perform on the song’s studio version.
A&P Summer US 2026 Headlining Tour All shows w/ Guiltless Sept 19 – Los Angeles, CA – Golddigger’s Sept 20 – Cottonwood, AZ – Queen B Vinyl Sept 22 – Denver CO – The Bluebird Theater Sept 23 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge Sept 24 – Boise, ID – The Shredder Sept 25 – Portland, OR – Dante’s Sept 26 – Vancouver, BC – The Cobalt Sept 27 – Seattle, WA – Substation Sept 29 – Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial Sept 30 – Oakland, CA – Stork Club Oct 01 – San Diego, CA – Casbah Oct 02 – Landers, CA – Giant Rock – Generator Party
Previously announced 2026 Nocturnal Birding Dates: w/ King Yosef Jun 23 – Glasgow, UK @ Slay Jun 24 – Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew Jun 25 – London, UK @ XOYO Jun 26 – Bourlon, France @ Rock in Bourlon Jun 27 – Hauteville, Switzerland @ Abyss Fest Jun 29 – Munich, Germany @ Feierwerk Jun 30 – Ljubljana, Slovenia @ Gromka Jul 1 – Zagreb, Croatia @ Močvara Jul 2 – Belgrade, Serbia @ KC Grad Jul 3 – Budapest, Hungary @ Turbina Jul 4 – Linz, Austria @ Kapu Jul 5 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Bike Jesus
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 8th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The video below was recorded on Nov. 2 at VooDoo Club in Warsaw, Poland, as San Diego/Philadelphia-based duo Author and Punisher celebrated the release of this Fall’s Nocturnal Birding (review here) on a European tour that took them from Amplifest in Portugal on a nearly-month-long loop that wound up at Damnation in the UK. Founding programmer/producer, vocalist and songwriter Tristan Shone and guitarist Doug Sabolick (who’s also been ripping it up this year with noisemakers Plaque Marks and whose hard-psych rock outfit Ecstatic Vision has plans in place for 2026 including Mojave Experience in CA in March), have more touring ahead of them, likely more than is listed for the February/March stint on the US East Coast which will mark their first for the new LP.
Looking ahead at spending however much of the next year on the road, a live video makes sense, but I don’t think this is so much a marketing calculation as an opportunity that came along. The film crew was local, I suppose is what I mean by that. Obviously the foundation of the piece is the live performance of the song, which was written in collaboration with France’s Fange and features them on the studio version. Here, Shone covers that part with duly harsh throat. He and Sabolick make an interesting contrast on stage. Shone is surrounded by midi keyboards and self-made machine interfaces — the striking onstage visual impression that Author and Punisher have always made — while Sabolick stands adjacent, entirely in the open, guitar in hand. Tension and release, the two of them. And both furiously heavy.
Yeah, it being December, I’m in year-end mode, so this won’t be the last time I talk about Author and Punisher in 2025, and I hope to see them on a stage somewhere, sometime, in 2026. Those East Coast dates and the video credits follow below, as hoisted from the YouTube page where the video appears. NocturnalBirding streams at the bottom. Enjoy:
Author & Punisher, “Black Storm Petrel” live at VooDoo Club, Warsaw, PL
Video by @flouwejett. Author & Punisher performs “Black Storm Petrel” LIVE in Warsaw, PL at VooDoo Club.
Experience Nocturnal Birding LIVE! All tour dates and tickets here:https://bnds.us/d2z1t9
North American Feb/Mar 2026 Nocturnal Birding Dates: Feb 20 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club ^ Feb 21 – Chicago, IL @ Reggies Rock Club ^ Feb 22 – Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle ^ Feb 23 – Detroit, MI @ The Sanctuary ^ Feb 25 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison ^ Feb 26 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB ^ Feb 27 – Cambridge, MA @ Sonia ^ Feb 28 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Meadows ^ Mar 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ukie Club ^ Mar 2 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery ^ Mar 4 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall ^ Mar 5 – Raleigh, NC @ Chapel of Bones ^ Mar 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Boggs Social Supply ^ Mar 8 – Austin, TX @ The Far Out Lounge ^ Mar 9 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada ^ ^ w/ King Yosef, Black Magnet
Posted in Reviews on October 2nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If the notion of Author and Punisher putting out a record themed around birds seems counterintuitive, fair enough. Nocturnal Birding wasn’t on my Bingo card either. In 2022, the San Diego-based, mostly-solo outfit of auteur and machinist Tristan Shone released Krüller (review here), which was a consuming soundtrack for the apocalypse humanity had just lived through in the years immediately preceding, and not only the lyrics, but the feel of the production seemed to embody a sci-fi analog for the times. Obviously the mission across the eight-song/34-minute Nocturnal Birding is different, and well it should be.
Each track represents a species — the exception is “Titmouse” and its pluralized counterpart “Titmice,” which follows — and while “Meadowlark” feels like a departure in some ways, it functions across its four and a half minutes not unlike Krüller opener “Drone Carrying Dread,” establishing the atmospheric backdrop against which the album will take place. Here, that involves birdsong. Some of it is manipulated digitally as one might expect, some of it echoes over imaginary canyons, but it is one of a few threads running throughout Nocturnal Birding, and it starts early over the first, clean-sung two minutes of “Meadowlark,” from which the lead cut transitions to the hard-chugging guitar that — guess what — is another thread.
In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote a bio for Nocturnal Birding and as part of that spoke with Shone about his experiences in volunteer groups near the Mexican border, handing out water bottles to migrants and helping people in the hyperspecific ways that wouldn’t also get him arrested by a government that consistently seems to get off most on its own cruelty. Those times, outdoors, at night, hearing the birds, inform not only the lyrics — handwritten in the album’s liner notes — and themes of “Meadowlark,” the closer “Thrush,” and other pieces, but they underline the core message of the work on a meta-level as well, which is that no one is coming to save you. There is no Jesus on the way, no white knights to come make things ‘right,’ whatever that even means in an era that’s nullified and commoditized truth, and the only way we get through is together. Collaboration.
This is shown not only in “Mute Swan,” where Megan Osztrosits of Couch Slut adds vocals, or “Titanis” where Indonesia’s Kuntari contribute live drums, or “Black Storm Petrel,” which was written together with French industrialists Fange, but in the deepening of the collaboration between Shone and guitarist Doug Sabolick (also of Ecstatic Vision, A Life Once Lost, Plaque Marks, etc.). The latter joined Shone in the wake of the last record to help bring that material to life onstage, and in addition to the head-spinning leads in the second half of “Titmouse,” his stamp can be heard in throughout the LP, whether it’s following the rolling procession of “Titanis” or in a more forward role, casting notes into the bleak ether about a minute into “Black Storm Petrel” or setting the bed of drone that becomes the undulating riff of “Rook,” penultimate to “Thrush,” where an omegachug bookends with “Meadowlark” righteously.
The expression of togetherness — which is to say nothing of breaking with the expectation of Author and Punisher as being a solo-project, even if Shone‘s still driving the songwriting — further extends to the construction of the album itself. While not at all devoid of ambience, whether that’s the soon-contrasted minimalism that opens to such breadth in “Thrush” or the echoing, otherworldly birds at the outset of “Mute Swan” joined by high-end wubs as it begins moving toward its also-clean-sung culmination, the airy aftermath in the end of “Titanis,” etc., this collection of songs was very clearly composed with the live presentation considered. To put numbers to that, Krüller had two tracks under five minutes long; Nocturnal Birding has seven. The shorter they are, the more you can play live, and the more generally direct they’ll be perceived as being. This puts Nocturnal Birding more in line with 2018’s Relapse Records label debut, Beastland (discussed here), but the context is different in sound and concept. The lessons of Krüller haven’t been forgotten so much as refined as part of an ongoing creative evolution.
Physical presence becomes important, the physicality of the songs, whether that’s Shone and Sabolick working through ideas together or the audience in front of the stage waiting to be flattened by the results. Author and Punisher remain largely in an echelon of their own when it comes to conveying aural weight in industrial music. The ‘kick drum’ alone in “Black Storm Petrel” conveys this superlative heft, as one layer goes to 16th notes — double-kick — and that core thud remains in place underneath, a punctuation unto itself. It grounds the angularity of “Titmice,” which tempo-wise moves away from the lurch in “Titanis,” and amid the stuttered verse hooks of “Mute Swan” and the cacophony that backs the arrival of Osztrosits‘ spoken part, it remains central to the movement of the piece. Complemented by the higher-register synth in the last crescendo of “Thrush,” it is another element tying the work together. A crucial difference is the corresponding prominence of the guitar.
Godflesh have always been a touchstone for industrial metal anything, and especially with the increased focus on live, by-human guitar, that lineage can be heard in “Rook,” the extreme-feeling middle of “Black Storm Petrel” and the way “Meadowlark” makes the riff the basis of its final build. But more than 20 years on from Shone‘s outset with the project, Nocturnal Birding finds Author and Punisher less beholden to aggression even in some of the outright nastiest stretches. “Meadowlark” is fierce and yells into the void with barking vocals up front as it resolves, but in the conclusions of “Mute Swan” and “Titmice,” leading into the apex of “Rook” and the Steve Von Till-esque beginning of “Thrush,” Shone sings soulfully and with no less striking a presence than one finds in the harshest, noisiest reaches of “Black Storm Petrel.”
Perhaps, then, the ultimate message of Nocturnal Birding is that as much as Author and Punisher have a core, identifiable sound, no two records issued under the moniker have ever been the same, and that the progression of craft has led Shone (and now Sabolick) to a place where notions of breadth and pinpointed impact can combine. “Thrush” is the longest inclusion on the album at 5:49, and sets forth mournfully into the slow churn of its first half, with maybe too much longing for it to have opened, but an apparent answer to “Meadowlark” just the same. And like the opener, it grows fiercer with the guitar, transitions via birdsong and shifts into a finish that feels like a summary of the album as a whole; complete in ways that go beyond just bringing back the earlier movement after the chug and building it out to end.
Between the themes, worldmaking, continued development of sound and complexity of the songs, Nocturnal Birding isn’t lacking for ‘stuff going on’ at any point. It is a testament to Shone and Sabolick on a compositional level that it’s also engaging in a way that music so outwardly bludgeoning rarely is. The mix is vast and there is room for you in it, should you also want to be a part of the collaboration just through the experience of listening. In doing so, one might even find comfort of a kind, as well as catharsis.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 7th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I’ve been waiting for this announcement. I was asked a couple months ago to write the bio for the upcoming Author and Punisher album, Nocturnal Birding, because somebody out there liked my review of the San Diego industrialist’s 2022 album, Krüller (review here). Had a chat (my first) with A&P auteur Tristan Shone for it and everything, talking about the album’s themes of immigration, the natural world, human cruelty, and so on. Turned in a draft that was a little more out there and was met with a fervent “meh.” Turned in a second draft and looks like part of it is used below, so I guess my last couple weeks of feeling like I’d outright failed at the project were premature. I’d rather be pleasantly surprised in this manner, if it’s one or the other.
All of this, however, is just to tell you that I’ve gotten to be fairly familiar with Nocturnal Birding, which packs theme upon theme while at the same time absolutely burying you with the heaviest audio you’ve heard since, let’s say, Krüller, and that it’s a contender in my mind for album of the year. Shone, working in closer collaboration with guitarist Doug Sabolick, has tightened the songs with live presentation as the ideal, and they hit more directly accordingly, without giving up the atmospheric flourish that made the last record feel like so much of a world.
I have more to say and will say it in due time. The following came down the PR wire today. For my own future reference, my portion starts with “After celebrating 20 years…” and ends at, “…mechanized sounds,” which was a fun interplay for me to point out on this one because I was on an album earlier this year that did the same thing. Go figure.
From the PR wire:
AUTHOR & PUNISHER: Announces New Full-Length Nocturnal Birding Out October 3, 2025
After celebrating 20 years since the inception of AUTHOR & PUNISHER in 2024, founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone embraces the project’s broadest scope to-date with Nocturnal Birding.
TRISTAN SHONE comments on the new album:
“When I sat down to start writing this album, I knew I wanted to make songs based on birdsong. The actual first guitar riff is one of the meadowlark’s songs. When you listen to ‘Rook,’ that melody is the rook’s sound. That track is us mimicking one of the rooks’ many songs. I wrote all my tracks around the rhythms and melodies of birds I researched or heard in the wild.”
Today, AUTHOR & PUNISHER shares the official video for Nocturnal Birding’s lead single “Titanis”. The video was filmed this past Summer in Bali, Indonesia live with Kuntari who performed on the studio recording of “Titanis”. Directed by Manda Selena and Ican Harem.
Watch on the Relapse YouTube Channel HERE.
Kuntari comment on the creation of the “Titanis” video:
“its hard to imagine the organic local sequence from us blend with monstrous industrial sound from Tristan. After many hours of discussion we instantly clicked and agreed where the song ended up. The results are beyond our imagination, Tristan easily fluids into fresh territory and we don’t have a border to break to. By far this is one of the most awe inspiring experience for us, not to mention our video production which is insanely epic and hilarious at the same time. The most memorable moment is we share a good laugh along the process”
Nocturnal Birding is out October 3, 2025 on LP/CD/Streaming via Relapse Records.
After celebrating 20 years since the inception of AUTHOR & PUNISHER in 2024, founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone embraces the project’s broadest scope to-date with Nocturnal Birding.
In addition to the strong and poignant messaging contained throughout the music, lyrics and artwork, Nocturnal Birding sees Tristan Shone synergizing with an array of artists from across the globe like never before in his career. From the artwork, meticulously designed by French artist Lucile Lejoly (Chat Pile, Roadburn Festival) to the mixing and mastering by Will Putney (Knocked Loose, Heriot, Body Count, Machine Head) to the musical guest appearances from France’s Fange, Indonesia’s Kuntari, and New York City’s Megan Oztrosits of Couch Slut, these outer creative inputs shine throughout the work.
Shone has welcomed collaborators in the past, but guitarist Doug Sabolick (Ecstatic Vision, Plaque Marks, A Life Once Lost, etc.) is the first genuine bandmate in AUTHOR & PUNISHER contributing creatively on guitar in ways that shape the persona of Nocturnal Birding, complementing Shone in melody and wrought tonal heft.
Removing himself from an artistic comfort zone proved fruitful inspiration. There is literal birdsong all over Nocturnal Birding, and transposing those melodies and rhythms to guitar became the root of the material, representing a rare coming together of the natural world and mechanized sounds.
Author & Punisher announce their Europe 2025 Tour, with Bong-Ra on select shows! Find all confirmed dates below.
