In the era of algorithmic playlists, two-minute TikTok song trends and AI-generated art, multi-platinum hit-maker and Grammy-winning producer Zedd is putting in the years and effort to craft an album-lover’s album, or as he puts it “music for the sake of art.”

After a nine-year album draught punctuated by career-defining, stand-alone singles, the prodigious multi-instrumentalist returns with his third studio album, Telos. 

“Telos has multiple meetings, one of them being ‘accomplishment’ or ‘completion of human art,’” he says. “‘The end’ is another interpretation of it, and I relate to all of them. I grew up listening to these albums that shaped me as a musician, and I never thought I would be able to create anything as good as those, but as I was completing Telos, I really felt the same emotion I was given by those incredible albums when I grew up. I created something I didn’t think I was capable of—it just took a long time.”

Telos is a 10-track masterpiece that blends Zedd’s classically trained roots and love of orchestral compositions with his signature dance-pop sound. It is complex and innovative without sacrificing the bright melodies and glitchy hooks fans of “The Middle” and “Stay” have come to expect.

The album weaves features from cross-genre monoliths John Mayer and Muse with alt-pop voices Remi Wolf and Dora Jar, modern Irish folk instrumentalists the olllam and even late American songwriting icon Jeff Buckley. Add to it threads of world music, jazzy breakdowns, psychedelic soundscapes, booming bass, soaring orchestral strings and layers of textured sound, and you’ve got a compelling ode to all the marvels of Zedd’s musical mind.

“Who is in the position of taking risks, re-educating people and giving them something new, if not people in my position?” he says. “I have to do this, not just for me, but I owe it to everyone, to give them an alternative to something that currently doesn't exist.”

Over the course of his legendary career, Zedd has performed sold-out headlining sets across the world at festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, EDC, Summer Sonic Japan, Outside Lands, ULTRA and many more. In 2018 he created his own festival, the famed Zedd in the Park, which has sold out every year since its inception (’18, ’19, ’22) and is now back for the event’s fourth edition, the first two-day incarnation of the event.

Now, with Telos, he turns his attention inward, pursuing the lofty heights of his wildest imagination. Inspired by the sweeping works of Silverchair and other artists who influenced his teenage years, Zedd pushed himself to the brink on what certainly stands as his most sophisticated and imaginative collection of songs. 

“What I've always dreamed of doing is creating an album that I genuinely believe 30 years from today, I will look back and be incredibly proud of,” he says, “that will be just as amazing then as it is right this moment, because it's not based on trends. It's not based on sound design that might fall off after a while. It's based on music, and so are the albums that I still to this day adore that were released 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago. [With Telos], I accomplished just that. It just took a bit of time to get there.”