Colin Self

CAT #: RVNGNL94-EX
Release date: February 13, 2026

Light passes through a prism, scattering rainbows into empty space. What may have once been an undifferentiated beam becomes many, whole spectral worlds made real. All flows from the central source of illumination, and yet in the fracture comes the gift of abundant new worlds.

To become aware of one and many both, simultaneously, in a riot of color and pulsating light: such is the gift that Colin Self’s music represents, never more so than on the expanded version of respite ∞ levity for the nameless ghost in crisis, with eleven new tracks adding to the rich fabric of Self’s third album, released in February 2025. It’s a sonic shrine vibrating in vivid detail, every small moment adding to the verdant beauty that defined the original album.

The undeniable draw of Self’s work is their voice: all on its own, the power is intuitive and magnetic, a beacon that may guide lost souls back to safer shores. Yet as a producer, performer, composer, multi-disciplinary artist, and collaborator, their work finds its fullest form, alive in all the little ways that a rainbow encompasses, each gradation suffused with meaning. It’s in this last role that r∞L4nGc’s expanded context comes into clearest view: with nearly half of the new tracks featuring collaborations with old friends, Self craves to share the stage, fresh sources of illumination crossing the prism at completely different angles.

All that made r∞L4nGc so special the first time around—Self singing to long-gone queer elders, conjuring beats that will be played on alien dancefloors centuries from now, the all-encompassing, the exploratory spirit of the ego-shattering infinitude that is the album’s eleven-minute closer “∞” —is still present here. Two of the album’s original tracks, “gajo” and “Losing Faith,” reappear in acoustic form. Both remain ornate, even stripped of Self’s intricate electronics, as hauntingly beautiful as a broken-down carousel, absent of the bells and whistles but still painted with loving attention, Self’s talents as a songwriter buttressing each composition.

Meanwhile, Self’s gifts as a collaborator and formalist shine through on several operatic tracks that feature other voices. “Alphabet’s Chant,” featuring their friend Geo Wyex, first appeared in Self’s opera Tip the Ivy, and Wyex’s incantatory vocals bring to life the hallucinatory sense of mystery from the performance, as they sing, “Their slow and blue shine/Coming though that so thick fog on the water.” Meanwhile, “Nanti Polari,” first commissioned for the Berliner Rundfunkchor, a German classical choir, features Iwona Sobotka singing in Polari, a kind of slantwise English Self uses throughout the record to speak in coded tongue first used by imprisoned queers centuries ago.

r∞L4nGc’s expanded form concludes with “disobedient daughters,” featuring visual artist Diamond Stingily. All 23 songs on this version of r∞L4nGc have grown together over the past five years, though Self says “disobedient daughters” is more recent and also gestures where they’re heading next. Self’s work has always traversed many timelines, drawing into the present moment the memory of long-gone elders that mingle with dreams of more liberated times to come. “disobedient daughters” is no exception, a polyvocal anthem that explodes the idea of a song as something bound in time. “I will fight for you/Because you fought for me/I will only stop/Once everyone is free,” Self chants.

The expanded version of Colin’s Self’s respite ∞ levity for the nameless ghost in crisis will be released February 13, 2026.