When Dan Snaith was blocked from recording under the name Manitoba—due to a lawsuit filed by an old punk rocker called Handsome Dick Manitoba—he was forced to come up with a new name and settled on Caribou; the name of an animal oft found roaming said Canadian Province.Maybe the London-based musician/doctor (he earned his PhD in 2005)—who will release a new album called Andorra via Merge Records August 21—is fascinated with the vast expanse that is Manitoba, and its accompanying roamers. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Either way, his mostly instrumental far-reaching compositions feel like open air in open country. Traveling and meandering, his flighty, sometimes dreary, arrangements feel like they could only exist in God’s country; like they’d never survive the confines of metropolitan life. Carefully construed and embedded with gentle streaks of emotion, Caribou music is part freaky (in a jazz way), part soundtrack (in a loaded way) and part progressive (in a building way). It’s also lovely and pretty and touching, so long as you don’t mind a little intentionally misplaced piece or electronic affect here and there. “I'm super happy with the way the album has turned out,” Snaith wrote on his website. “I've put seemingly endless hours into it over the last year or so getting everything exactly as I wanted it and have never been this madly excited about my music. I can't wait for you all to hear it and hope you'll like it too.”Andorra track-listing: 01 Melody Day02 Sandy03 After Hours04 She's the One05 Desiree06 Eli07 Sundialing08 Irene09 Niobe