Dan Wilson Previews Good Night, Los Angeles Album With 'Ventura'

04-23-2025

(MPG) GRAMMY-winning musician, songwriter, and producer Dan Wilson released a new song "ventura" from his forthcoming instrumental album good night, los angeles that will be released on May 9. An 18-song collection of piano recordings born out of a regular series of Sunday evening performances he would post to social media, the album was recorded entirely on a 1918 Vose & Sons upright piano that was found on the streets of Hollywood. The album is Wilson's first instrumental release and offers a rare glimpse into the award-winning songwriter's raw, unvarnished creative process.

About the track, Wilson explains, "The next single from my album of improvised piano lullabies, good night, los angeles, is a song called 'ventura.' These tracks are all named after streets that are important to me in LA. And each of them has a video attached to it that depicts a native Californian mushroom species in its natural (or psychedelic) habitat. The videos are by Sara Nelson, who is a scientific illustrator by day. But by night, apparently she paints freaky pictures of psychedelic mushrooms."

"ventura" follows the release of "laurel" and the three-song EP suite of "deervale / moorpark / tujunga," which featured an official video by art director Yazz Alali and illustrator/animator Sarah Nelson, who paired the music with hypnotic animations of mushrooms growing and interacting, their mycelium spreading out through the soil and entangling together to create increasingly complex neural networks.

An instrumental piano album may seem like an unlikely project for an artist so known for his way with words, who last year alone received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song ("It Never Went Away"), won his first CMA Award for Song of the Year ("White Horse") and took home the GRAMMY for Country Song of the Year ("White Horse). But in the end, the result is classic Wilson: an evocative work of deep emotion and thoughtful beauty, one crafted purely for the love of the creation and shared in the hopes of forging meaningful connection.

"Lyrics are always the greatest challenge for me as a writer, so to devote a whole project to instrumental pieces was really liberating," Wilson explains. "It also allowed me to tap into the kind of wistful, early 20th century piano music that I've always loved but never really had the room to explore in my own work."

In addition to his new album, Dan Wilson's band Semisonic will embark on a summer tour supporting Toad The Wet Sprocket that kicks off on July 23 in Eugene, OR and will make stops in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Chicago and more.