The song ‘Let Me Lie’ will be featured on Trey Anastasio‘s forthcoming seventh solo album, ‘Traveler,’ but while it’s a new recording, it’s not exactly a new tune. In fact, the Phish frontman has been playing ‘Let Me Lie’ for years, teaming up with a diverse variety of musical collaborators — from his own Trey Anastasio Band and the Scorchio Quartet to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Denver Symphony Orchestra — employing an equally diverse variety of instrumentation.

For ’Traveler,’ his collaborator was producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol) and his instrumentation was the recording studio itself. ”My goal was to create an album that used the studio as an instrument,” Anastasio, who began recording ‘Traveler’ after Phish wrapped up its 2011 summer tour, says of the disc in a press release. “I wanted to work with Peter because he is a master at creating a sonic landscape. We were hoping for a cinematic end result.”

Anastasio got what he wanted. Using the studio to its fullest potential, he takes what is essentially a simple four-chord folk-rock tune and expands into a technicolor jam, adding layer after layer of organ, strings, xylophone, backing vocals and more until it’s transformed. ‘Let Me Lie’ could almost pass for a Phish song — it did, after all, start off as a band demo — but with the studio in such focus here, it’s a little too scripted for a group best known for its wandering live jams.

Listen to Trey Anastasio, ‘Let Me Lie’

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