*300 copies limited edition* We’ve found the son of Daniel Johnston and Robert Wyatt, and he works at a call center in San Antonio, Texas. His name is Richard Wilson Avena. Slowly approaching his fifties, he is a voracious fan of sixties pop music, composing and playing since the age of 13. A chronic depressive, music and family are 'what have kept him alive all these years.' He takes care of his elderly father daily, a former writer and activist for Mexican civil rights. Armed with only his 8-track recorder and his instruments—a synth full of sounds, two guitars, a frying pan, a glass, and a fork for the rhythm section—Richard enjoys churning out demos by the hundreds. He doesn’t aim to polish these gems, leaving them untouched, and in our view, this makes them even more precious.

He doesn’t try to release his music beyond his room either, except for hundreds of YouTube videos cast into the digital void, accompanied by static images like screensavers. It was entirely by chance that La Belle Brute stumbled upon La Chanson de Crapaud, a strange and haunting ode with a Wyatt-like voice layered over mouth sounds straight out of a Morricone soundtrack. This discovery opened the door to dozens upon dozens of incandescent skeleton compositions with windblown hair. A curious world where the Beach Boys might pick up Nick Drake hitchhiking to Taco Bell.

A few email exchanges later, with attachments full of tracks, childhood photos, Christmas trees, and thank-yous to his parents, his first album is ready. It is simply titled Richard Wilson Avena.

La Belle Brute is very proud to present it to you.