Geographer is the project of Los Angeles-based artist Mike Deni, who describes his sound as “soulful music from outer space” using analog, electronic, and acoustic elements to craft dense layers and unique sound textures.

Recently, Geographer shared a stripped-down version of his single, “Verona,” off of his 2010 album, Animal Shapes. He elaborates on why he decided to release the new take on the track now, “When quarantine started, I did a live stream concert every week for about 4 months, and I recorded a lot of the performances. I’ve always wanted to release an official version of ‘Verona’ stripped down, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity since I had so many versions of it sitting on my hard drive. I picked my favorite one and restrained myself (forcibly at times) from re-recording anything or cleaning up any of the mistakes, so it could be a true live, one-take, simple version. It is just sort of a document of the beginning of quarantine, when I was rediscovering so many old songs and reinterpreting them for a simplified and muted world.”

Geographer, began in 2005, Deni relocated to San Francisco from New Jersey, after living with the aftermath of the sudden and tragic death of his sister, and then the equally unexpected death of his father a year later. While sleeping on the floor of his friends’ apartment in the Haight, Deni found a synthesizer on the street, and began to channel both his grief and his optimism into the songs that would become his debut album, Innocent Ghosts. This theme would continue through all his music, which pits intense and emotionally probing lyrics with momentous and soaring arrangements, often featuring electric cello. Geographer has toured with The Flaming Lips, Tycho, Ratatat, Betty Who, and more.