From the quiet disappearance of a longtime partner in “A Hole in the Air” to hope eroding in “Hope Dies Hard,” from a flashy billionaire’s fall to the subtle political sacrifices of everyday workers, Absentia captures absence everywhere it shows up.

Longboat has been open about the intent behind each song, but the album never feels prescriptive. Listeners are encouraged to connect in their own way, making the experience personal rather than fixed.

Step inside the mind of a true sonic alchemist. With more than 30 albums under his belt, Longboat bends genres, blends textures, and breaks the rules, all while keeping the human touch front and center. From jazz roots to electronic blues experiments, every track on Absentia is a journey, and today, we get the behind-the-scenes story of how it all comes to life.

Step inside the mind of a true sonic alchemist. With more than 30 albums under his belt, Longboat bends genres, blends textures, and breaks the rules, all while keeping the human touch front and center. From jazz roots to electronic blues experiments, every track on Absentia is a journey, and today, we get the behind-the-scenes story of how it all comes to life.

His music tackles wealth inequality, political unrest, and life’s absurdities, all while pushing musical and conceptual boundaries.

Igor Keller’s background is in jazz, that school of rhythm, intuition, and improvisation that teaches musicians how to think in movement. But Longboat isn’t jazz, at least not in the traditional sense. It’s sharp-edged pop minimalism, wired with restless curiosity. Beneath its sleek, synthetic pulse runs the discipline of a jazzman who knows exactly when to pull back and when to let the sound breathe.

Seattle-based artist Longboat, the project of composer and producer Igor Keller, delivers his latest album, Word Gets Around, with a clear sense of purpose. Known for avoiding mainstream tropes, Longboat pushes deeper into commentary-driven songwriting, drawing a sharp line between distraction and critique.

As Longboat, Igor Keller has quietly built one of the most prolific and thematically fearless discographies in independent music, trading in saxophone solos from his jazz past for sharp-edged pop minimalism.

Produced with engineer Ryan Leyva, Word Gets Around refuses to indulge in the gloss typical of mainstream pop, instead embracing an honest, unembellished aesthetic that reflects the album’s themes. 

The Seattle-based composer, who cut his teeth as a jazz saxophonist, has long flirted with the tension between traditional song structure and experimental minimalism. On this record, that tension becomes a potent tool for dissecting the noise—both cultural and digital—that defines 2025.

It’s easy to miss a release like Word Gets Around if you’re not tuned into the wavelength where experimental pop, jazz bones, and digital anxiety converge. But that’s kind of the point. Igor Keller, operating under his long-running moniker Longboat, doesn’t scream for attention.

With 32 albums under his belt—and at least eleven more in the works this year alone — Longboat is not your average pop experimentalist. Known for character-driven, often genre-defying songs that rarely lean on romance, he weaves stories that both provoke and entertain.