Lee Ranaldo is a co-founder of Sonic Youth, a visual artist, producer and writer. In 2017 he returned to the Mute family after many years (Sonic Youth’s earlier records were released on Blast First) with Electric Trim, a collaboration with producer Raül ‘Refree’ Fernandez that extended Ranaldo’s solo canon.

Names of North End Women, another collaboration with Raül Refree followed in 2020 before Ranaldo released In Virus Times (2021), an instrumental acoustic piece in four parts, written and performed by Lee Ranaldo at his Manhattan home, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.