Rachael Yamagata: rachaelyamagata.com

Rachael Yamagata isn’t dinner party small talk – she’s the knife and compass in a red velvet satchel.

With her unmistakable voice as a touchstone, the Hudson Valley-based singer/songwriter returns on Starlit Alchemy not as the torch-song siren or heartbreak whisperer of years past, but as a guide for transformation – shedding what no longer serves, naming the ache, and reaching toward something more. The songs off her long-awaited fifth studio album are a chrysalis in real time: A cinematic, soul-stirring journey through grief, surrender, resilience, and release. Equal parts storm and salve, Starlit Alchemy roams the cave and the stars. It weaves galactic counsel into our human experience. It’s a soundtrack for personal excavation and mystical rebirth, made to be felt in full.

Released October 3, 2025 via Jullian Records, Starlit Alchemy is the triumphant result of hard-earned clarity and recalibration. Arriving nine years after her last LP – 2016’s Tightrope Walker – Yamagata’s new record finds her fully in the driver’s seat of her career: 13 years self-managed, untouched by record labels past and untethered by genre or obligation. She wrote the album both before and during 2020, funded it through international touring, and recorded most in her home studio in the Catskill mountains with longtime collaborators. ‘Yama’ itself means ‘mountain’ in Japanese – her father’s heritage perhaps fatedly tied to her mother’s, her roots a hundred years-plus from Woodstock, NY. Climbing, moving, and becoming the mountain would not be an incorrect description of the process and experience of this particular album. A backdrop of loved ones passing for many involved on the record, and her own bouts with everything from TMJ to hearing loss, multiple stop-starts and reset moments all weaved their influence into the final recording.

@ Fremont Abbey Arts Center

7p doors, 8p show

All ages, some seating available, bar w/ID

ABBEY ARTS EVENT INFO:

Fremont Abbey is ADA accessible on either level.
For most events we have a mix of padded chairs and standing room.
Seating is not guaranteed or reserved unless noted.
To respect the performing artists and your fellow attendees, please refrain from talking during the performances
Please limit photos during the show so as to not distract other attendees from the experience.
Phone and video may be permitted for some shows, from the standing area only please.
No professional cameras or cameras with shutters allowed in the venue
We are an all ages venue. Kids 10 & under are free at Abbey Arts concerts & arts events unless noted.
Equity & Inclusion - Entering the venue indicates agreement to adhere to the Abbey Respect Policy. www.fremontabbey.org/respect
Service animals as defined by the ADA are allowed. Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.