Afternoon Bike Ride – “Abigail”
Afternoon Bike Ride is a Montreal-based trio (Lia Kurihara, Éloi Le Blanc-Ringuette and David Tanton) who makes music that’s a bit hard to describe — there’s a bit of folktronica in there, ambient noodlings, and some gorgeous experimental sounds mixed into their songs. When “Oh No!” came out a few months ago, our staff just had to throw it on our Weekly Bullet Review column and talk about how vibrant its instrumentation was. To this day, I still play the extended version of the track on YouTube on repeat. It’s good!
As it turns out, there’s more where that came from. Afternoon Bike Ride recently released a new song “Abigail,” and it features a lot of the hallmarks of what made “Oh No!” such a standout track. Vocalist Lia Kurihara muses on about possible past lives (and future ones) above a trip-hop beat and some all-enveloping piano chords. It’s a bit chaotic and definitely more claustrophobic than “Oh No!” but it also lets Kurihara show off some of her floating vocals towards the end. I really can’t wait to find out what a live show from the trio would look like!
The music video, directed by the group, also features Kurihara walking and jogging through a mostly empty street in the dark. If this trend of Kurihara singing to the camera out in public continues, maybe the next music video will be her hiking or walking up an escalator or something? Just a thought.
“Abigail” and the previously mentioned “Oh No!” will be on a new record, Running With Scissors, out on September 19, 2025 via Friends of Friends Music.
You can pre-order the new album right now on their Bandcamp or FoF store.
Artist pages: Website | Instagram | Bandcamp | YouTube
Li-Wei Chu is the chief editor of From the Intercom. When he’s not editing drafts and searching for new artists to cover for the website, he loves watching cult films, cooking, and listening to his ever-growing collection of vinyl records. You can follow him on LetterBoxd and make fun of his taste in movies here!