Califone just released “Stitches,” the first single from their new album of the same name.

Featuring Jessie Stein (The Luyas) on vocals, “Stitches” is a thematically appropriate introduction to an album teeming with a multitude of evocative images, ideas and sounds all threaded together at their adjoining borders.

“This is the only record I’ve made in my life where none of the work was done in Chicago,” says Rutili, who commenced recording with Griffin Rodriguez in Los Angeles, Michael Krassner in Phoenix, and Craig Ross in Austin, along with a raft of guest musicians.

In some regards, Stitches harks back to those earliest days of Califone. There was more home recording, and musicians came and went as the songs dictated. “It was a much more solitary process, and that freed me up to feel less self-conscious about singing and writing more personal lyrics.” Yet the ultimate outcome sounds like the work of an artist reborn. “I tried to keep the songs visual and poetic, but it was more important to allow myself to feel and be vulnerable and not hide in the music,” Rutili says. “Instead of writing from my balls and brain, this time I wrote from the nerves, skin, and heart.” (Dead Oceans)

Stitches will be released on September 2.