Secretly Canadian Announces Posthumous Jason Molina Album ‘Eight Gates’ & Shares New Single

Secretly Canadian will release a posthumous Jason Molina album entitled Eight Gates on August 7. The album, which is the final set of solo recordings made by Molina before his death due to alcoholism complications in 2013, features the lead single, “Shadow Answers The Wall.”

According to a press release, Molina moved to London around 2006 or 2007. While exploring the city, he learned of the seven gates in the London Wall, conjuring in his mind an eighth gate for himself. In 2008, Molina embarked on a solo tour of Europe when he allegedly became severely ill after being bitten by a poisonous spider.

“I was in the hospital here in London,” wrote Molina. “Saw six doctors and a Dr. House-type guy. They are all mystified by it, but I am allowed to be at home, where I am taking a dozen scary Hantavirus type pills a day that are all to supposedly help — but they make me feel like shit.”

However, research shows “no record of a single doctor visit” or “any prescription record for these medications” and that it’s “entirely plausible there was no spider and that whatever was keeping him indoors during this time was entirely self-induced.”

During his time in London, Molina also claimed to feed a group of green parrots that visited the yard where he lived. London lore states that those birds are descendants of a pair of lime green ring-necked parakeets released by Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s.

Molina, whose recording projects included Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co., was 39 when he died on March 16, 2013. In 2009, Molina released a collaborative album with Will Johnson, Molina And Johnson.

One of nine songs on Eight Gates, “Shadow Answers The Wall” can be streamed below:

Eight Gates Tracklist

1. Whisper Away
2. Shadow Answers the Wall
3. The Mission’s End
4. Old Worry
5. She Says
6. Fire on the Rail
7. Be Told the Truth
8. Thistle Blue
9. The Crossroad + The Emptiness