First single “Methuselah” is out now.

February 5, 2026
Digital release of Altar of Tomorrow

April 16, 2026
Release of the 2LP 180g Milky Clear vinyl edition - Pre-Order Now

Visual by Adam Garcia

Curious Music is pleased to announce Altar of Tomorrow, a new collaborative album by Hustlekat and Ynes Mon. The record brings together two distinct musical approaches—one rooted in instrumental performance and long-form composition, the other shaped through studio process, texture, and spatial listening.

Altar of Tomorrow takes shape through close listening and shared restraint. Hustlekat’s work draws from a classical and orchestral discipline—attention to bow pressure, phrasing, register, and balance—carried into an environment where those values are gently expanded. Ynes Mon approaches sound from within the studio itself, treating microphones, signal paths, and processing as compositional tools. One practice begins in physical gesture and resonance in the room; the other focuses on how sound behaves once captured, layered, and transformed.

The album forms where these perspectives meet. Violin, electronics, and processing coexist without hierarchy. Sounds are introduced carefully, sustained or thinned, allowed to decay, or removed altogether. What emerges is a precise calibration of tone, silence, and duration—music attentive to pacing and continuity, oriented toward what follows rather than what resolves.morrow.

Developed in Los Angeles through an open-ended studio dialogue, Altar of Tomorrow treats composition as a continuous act rather than a sequence of finished statements. The opening track, “Methuselah,” released as the album’s first single, establishes the record’s core vocabulary—setting tone, scale, and pace—before ideas are gradually extended and recontextualized across the album. Later, the sixth track, “Legend of the Hill,” articulates one of the work’s most expansive melodic and spatial ideas. The seventh track is a remix of “Legend of the Hill,” created in collaboration with Peter Chilvers, whose long-standing work with Brian Eno has helped define a lineage of generative and ambient music. Rather than functioning as a conventional remix, the piece extends the source material forward—preserving its harmonic and spatial core while allowing texture, pacing, and emphasis to evolve. This sense of onward movement—of music refusing to settle—is central to the album’s identity.

Across the record, pieces unfold with quiet intent—interconnected yet self-contained—guided by a shared sensitivity to form, balance, and pacing. Classical awareness informs the shaping of duration and transition, while studio processes allow material to remain open and responsive. Rather than building toward resolution, Altar of Tomorrow favors continuity and forward motion, allowing each piece to suggest the next without closure.

ABOUT HUSTLEKAT (STEPHANIE YU)
Hustlekat is the recording project of Stephanie Yu, a Los Angeles–based violinist, composer, and collaborator whose work draws from classical tradition while actively engaging experimental and contemporary sound practices. Trained at The Juilliard School, where she earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, Yu brings a deep orchestral and chamber foundation into settings that extend beyond the concert hall.

Her performance work spans a wide range of contexts, from internationally recognized venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, the Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Berghain, to collaborations with ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, and San Diego Symphony. Across these settings, her playing emphasizes restraint, texture, and attentive listening.

Yu is also an active studio musician, recording with film, television, and game composers, and appearing on sessions with artists across contemporary music, including Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Stevie Wonder, Sigur Rós, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Danny Elfman, and The Who. Altar of Tomorrow marks her debut full-length album as Hustlekat, presenting her violin practice within a broader compositional and studio-based framework shaped by openness, precision, and forward motion.

Hustlekat

ABOUT YNES MON (COLLIN DAVIS)

Collin Davis, recording as Ynes Mon, is a Los Angeles–based musician, producer, and audio polymath whose work moves fluidly between ambient, experimental, rock, and hip-hop. A Grammy Award–winning engineer at Stones Throw Studios, Davis has collaborated with artists including Laraaji, Sudan Archives, Anderson .Paak, and Knxwledge, while maintaining a parallel practice focused on experimental composition and sound design.

Davis approaches the studio as both instrument and environment, shaping material through careful attention to space, signal flow, and perception. He is the co-founder of Evidence Based Music, a label and research initiative exploring the relationship between sound, consciousness, and emotional regulation. As Ynes Mon, his work emphasizes continuity, process, and subtle transformation—principles that underpin Altar of Tomorrow as a shared, evolving composition. 

Ynes Mon

credits