Toronto “moccasin-gaze” artist Daniel Monkman aka Zoon has returned this week with a surprise EP called A Sterling Murmuration. The opening track Play Ground really caught our attention, so it only made sense to share it, and the rest of the EP with you.

Speaking on the new 4-song effort, Monkman had this to say: “A Sterling Murmuration as a body of work is material from ten plus years ago. I recorded these songs with my high school friends in Winnipeg but broke the record into a few different movements. ‘Big Pharma’ was the first movement and this is the second.

A Sterling Murmuration comes from the movement that a flock of birds do for safety from predators. They use this technique for other reasons such as warmth at night, also to exchange information about feeding areas.

I feel very connected to this concept, I see it in humans and how we need a strong community to protect each other. Isolation played a role in this body of work and is supposed to display the danger in isolating. While in this state we set ourselves up to be in harm’s way by outside forces but breaking out and embracing humility and community you can finally transcend into a healthy trajectory.”

Listen to Play Ground in the embed below, and be sure to hit up their socials for more. And, while you’re at it, grab a digital copy of the new EP over at Paper Bag Records.