Gabriel Kahane's Magnificent Bird/Book of Travelers begins performances Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons September 24, but music from the pair of live "concept album" musicals is already dropping via Nonesuch Records. Listen to Kahane sing "Red Letter Days" from the production above.

"Red Letter Days" is part of Magnificent Bird, which chronicles a year Kahane spent completely off-line, attempting to write one new song each day (which included "Red Letter Days.")

“I wanted to create an aural brain scan at the end of this experiment,” Kahane explains, “and to give myself permission to write about small things, rather than trying to distill the enormity of the moment into grand statements."

Kahane, whose internet hiatus "grew out of a belief that ... our digital devices reinforce the fiction that convenience and efficiency have intrinsic value," says that Magnificent Bird relates back to his 2018 debut album, Book of Travelers (also released by Nonesuch), which tracked Kahane's 9,000-mile, off-the-grid railway trip in the days following the 2016 presidential election. “I wanted unmediated interaction with strangers, so I took that trip without my phone," he remembers. "Somewhere in New Mexico, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is really transformative. I should do this for more than 13 days.’”

Magnificent Bird and Book of Travelers will perform in repertory through October 6. Anne Tippe is directing, and Kahane will perform his own work.

Find "Red Letter Days" on streaming networks here. For tickets and more information about the Playwrights Horizons performances, visit PlaywrightsHorizons.org.