When Lyonnais guitarist Lee Tesche found international success with Algiers, I wondered if that meant, for all practical purposes, a slow death for the Atlanta post-punk quartet. After all, since unveiling the soundtrack for Solomon Chase’s short film Terminus in August of 2013, the band had receded into the shadows, turning up perhaps once or twice a year to play a show before promptly going back into hiding.

But then last April, ahead of a Red Bull Sound Select performance with Lightning Bolt and the Soft Moon, the group announced a new album, Anatomy of the Image, would be released over the summer on Geographic North, a label co-founded by Lyonnais members Farzad Moghaddam (bass, synths) and Farbod Kokabi (guitar, vocals). Any fears of the band’s decline into inactivity were suddenly quelled. But summer came and went without any mention of the LP, and the longer the group remained silent, the more you began to wonder if the project would ever come to fruition.

Fast forward to yesterday, and once again Lyonnais have emerged from the darkness, this time with a lead single and release date in tow. “Vienna Circles” finds the band working outside the propulsive drone-punk they so fiercely unleashed on their 2011 debut, Want for Wish for Nowhere, and into territory that is more abstract and meditative. Leaning heavily on drummer TJ Blake’s (Lotus Plaza) clattering beat and Kokabi’s deep, brooding vocals, the track alternately swirls, stabs, and soars, piling on shards of textured guitar, distended synths, and moody sax that helps provide a melodic anchor for the band’s protean post-punk. It’s a fantastically singular effort, and welcome return for one of our city’s boldest and most inventive artists. Listen below.

Anatomy of the Image is out April 22 on vinyl and digital. Pre-orders are available now.

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Facebook: @lyonnaisband
SoundCloud: @lyonnais
Twitter: @lyonnaisband