Zach Zaitlin

Zach Zaitlin writes music that defies easy categorization but which reaches straight to listeners’ hearts. Unexpected piano textures – from crystalline clusters and deep dark growls to sweet, yearning chords – combine with haunting synthscapes and searing, soulful vocals equal parts Jeff Buckley beauty and White Chalk-era PJ Harvey pathos. Born and raised on the Maine coast, Zaitlin’s songs seem to be striving after some sort of oceanic sense of infinity while speaking directly to the experience of this complicated, hard, but sweet life. His distinctive musical vision reflects the influence of his parents’ 60s-heavy record collection, classical training in piano and composition, and avid exploration of pop, ambient, and avant-garde sounds since adolescence, garnering comparisons to Björk, Radiohead, Grizzly Bear, Brian Eno, and Elliott Smith. Zaitlin’s forthcoming debut LP, PRIMETIME, marks a hard-fought return to music more than 15 years after his 2009 EP JOYEUX NOËL. In the intervening years, a cross-continent journey, building a life in recovery, struggles with perfectionism and self-doubt, and a winding search to find meaning in life led him to nearly abandon his creative work. The 12 songs on PRIMETIME trace a parallel inner voyage. Zaitlin takes listeners on a moving journey through the dark night of the soul even as the bright glimmer of daybreak begins to emerge. PRIMETIME is due out early 2027.