Black Duck & Elena Setién Debut Dickinson-Inspired “Funeral In My Brain”

Chicago trio Black Duck—Douglas McCombs, Bill MacKay, and Charles Rumback—have a collaborative full-length on the way with Basque musician Elena Setién. Black Duck With Elena Setién arrives August 28 via Thrill Jockey, and today they’ve shared a second track, “Funeral In My Brain.”

The six-minute piece takes its title and text from an Emily Dickinson poem, its unhurried delivery and open-negative-space arrangement landing somewhere between a spoken-word drift and a slow-burning post-rock meditation. If the reference point offered up—an extremely chill, relaxed version of Horses-era Patti Smith—feels a bit too neat, it gestures in the right direction: there’s a similar marriage of literary gravity and raw, unhurried sound.

The collaboration follows Black Duck’s 2023 self-titled debut, extending the trio’s patient instrumental sensibilities into more vocal-forward territory with Setién’s measured presence. Earlier single “Land Of The Many Eyes” gave a first glimpse; “Funeral In My Brain” deepens the album’s quiet, simmering logic.