Circles Around the Sun

Who Are They?

Circles Around the Sun are an instrumental band that exists almost by accident. In 2015, guitarist Neal Casal was asked to record music to play during the set breaks at the Grateful Dead's Fare Thee Well farewell concerts. He and three friends improvised five hours of music with nothing written in advance.

That set-break music was so good that people started asking about it, and a real band was born. The sound is warm, hypnotic, and cosmic: long, patient, groove-based instrumentals that owe as much to Jerry Garcia's tone as to jazz-funk and kosmische electronic music.

It is headphone music and dance-floor music at once, and it sits perfectly in the lineage of every psychedelic jam band, because it literally grew out of the biggest one of all.

The Story

A one-off assignment that turned into a decade-long project, and outlived the man who started it.

1. 2015

   Fare Thee Well

   Justin Kreutzmann, son of the Dead's Bill Kreutzmann, asks Neal Casal to make intermission music for the band's 50th-anniversary farewell shows. Casal, with Adam MacDougall, Dan Horne, and Mark Levy, improvises five hours of it, live.

2. 2015

   Interludes for the Dead

   The set-break recordings are released, and the response is immediate: people want more of the music that played while they waited.

3. 2018

   Let It Wander

   The first proper follow-up, a flowing blend of jazz-funk, fusion, and R&B that confirms this is a real band, not just a happy accident.

4. 2019

   The loss of Neal Casal

   Casal, a deeply loved figure across the roots and jam worlds, dies by suicide in August. His bandmates, and a wider community, are left grieving a rare musician.

5. 2020

   Circles Around the Sun

   The self-titled album, featuring the last music Casal recorded with the band, arrives as both a new chapter and a farewell.

6. 2023 & on

   Language, and forward

   The band continues with a rotating cast of guitarists, keeping the cosmic project alive with records like Language and a second volume of Interludes.

Start Here

Two official tracks and a full live session. Put on headphones and let them stretch out.

The Albums 5 to start with

An all-instrumental catalog that rewards deep, patient listening. Start with these five.

Playlists

One curated YouTube Music playlist of Circles Around the Sun essentials, the cosmic way in.

The Band

A four-piece built on collective improvisation, anchored for its first chapter by one remarkable guitarist.

• Neal CasalGuitar (2015–2019)The founder and heart of the band, a beloved guitarist and songwriter from the Chris Robinson Brotherhood and Ryan Adams' Cardinals; his tone defines the early records
• Adam MacDougallKeysThe harmonic and textural core, and a fellow Chris Robinson Brotherhood alum
• Dan HorneBassThe deep, melodic anchor the long grooves are built on
• Mark LevyDrumsThe patient, hypnotic pulse that lets the jams breathe

Influences

The band sits at the meeting point of the Grateful Dead's improvisation, cosmic 1970s rock, and kosmische electronic music.

Interviews

Two looks at the band and the guitarist at its heart.

Going Deeper

A few directions once the grooves have you.

• The source. Go straight to the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia, the music that made this band possible.
• Neal Casal's other bands. Follow his guitar into the Chris Robinson Brotherhood and Ryan Adams and the Cardinals.
• The live tapes. Like the tradition it comes from, the band is best heard stretching out live; find a full show and settle in.
• Highway Butterfly. The all-star tribute record made in Casal's memory is a moving way to understand how loved he was.

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