Theo Alexander and Qow announce second collaborative album: ‘Happy Birthday’

Theo Alexander and Qow have announced ‘Happy Birthday’, their second collaborative album and the first release on lowercase discourse, a new Amsterdam-based contemporary music label run by Hala Namer.

The pair’s eight-track new album, due out on November 9, continues their process of working with material drawn from live performances, using buried fragments that have been recycled and reshaped through multiple iterations. The album develops this approach as both a continuous narrative composition and a collection of individual sonic moments.

Across the record, Theo Alexander and Qow move further into vocal experimentation, bringing intimate electronics and spatial ambience into contact with more song-led and mournful passages. The album also features contributions from Otteswed, MrF13, Adam Radż, Fæ Bestia and Nadah El Shazly.

It moves between abstract passages and more lyrical forms, combining layered ambient textures with a stronger emphasis on songwriting. It marks the latest stage of a collaboration that has developed through both recorded material and live performance, while also introducing lowercase discourse as a new platform for contemporary music.

The record follows the pair’s debut collaborative album, ‘So Afraid To Show I Care’, which was released through Swiss label Danse Noire in June 2025. The nine-track project brought together material developed through their live performances and featured contributions from Egyptian spoken-word artist otteswed and double bassist Klára Pudláková.

The lead single from the pair’s forthcoming album, ‘Let The Rain’, is available to stream now. Alongside the digital edition, ‘Happy Birthday’ will also receive a physical release on 12-inch black vinyl, limited to 300 copies and featuring a printed insert.

Listen to ‘Let The Rain’ below, pre-order the album here.