Good news for fans of melancholic indie folk. Caspar Auwerkerken has just announced his long-awaited debut album 'Figuring Out My Horizons', and releases new single out 27 February via V2 Records.

Alongside the album announcement, Caspar releases a second single 'Pilgrim', the perfect track to celebrate the autumn. He will celebrate the release on March 31 at Het Depot (Leuven), tickets are available here. Stream 'Pilgrim' here and previous single 'Two Ravens' here.

“What does it mean to be human today, and how can one live authentically in the world?”

That's the central question Caspar asks himself on Figuring Out My Horizons. His songs are thematic in nature, drawing inspiration from philosophy, visual art, and the natural world. A central theme concerns how humanity deals with climate change in a world that is becoming increasingly materialistic and detached, and what concepts like authenticity and genuineness still mean.

At the same time, the songs also symbolize his search for inner peace, an attempt to respond to an anxiety disorder that at times rears its head intensely. The album is an act of resistance against fear — a manifestation of his “self” as something crystallized out of that fear, yet simultaneously offering a constructive counterbalance to a destructive force.

Loyal sources of inspiration that guide him in exploring these questions — and that are sometimes referenced directly — include philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Henry David Thoreau, and poets Arthur Rimbaud and Georg Trakl.

In this searching mindset, he wrote the songs in the natural surroundings that inspire him most — at a fixed writing spot in a forest near his home. This environment plays a crucial role in the creative process of the album as an atmospheric sounding board. If a song could be played there and the energy of the place resonated with it, he knew it was a piece worth keeping. For months he refined the songs, but the ideas truly came to life during band rehearsals.

Xavier Declercq (bass/synth), Arno De Bock (drums), and Mauro Bentein (guitar) further shaped the tracks in a more daring way, leaving their mark on the album with bold arrangements and choices — sometimes resulting in intimate, hushed songs, and at other times in fuller, guitar-driven soundscapes.