Photo by Noah Kalina

The British four piece Alt-J will, for now, be a three piece. Earlier today, the band announced on Twitter that bassist-guitarist Gwil Sainsbury will no longer be performing with the group.

Alt-J did make it clear that there were no hard feelings between Sainsbury and the other three members—frontman Joe Newman, keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton, and drummer Thom Green—who met and formed the band while attending Leeds University in 2007.

“With regret, Gwil is leaving alt-J,” the band announced on Twitter. “This is purely a personal decision and as our best friend we support him completely.”

Alt-J released their debut album, An Awesome Wave, in 2012, and received the Mercury Prize for the album in the same year. As recently as last month, the band appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to perform "Fitzpleasure."

Fans of the band have lamented the loss of Sainsbury through social media since hearing the news. Several listeners have already expressed concern over what will happen with some of Sainsbury’s signature contributions, like the guitar parts in the song, “Taro.”

Sainsbury was the second member to join the band after Newman played some of his songs for him. He also was Alt-J’s original producer, mixing and recording some of their first songs on GarageBand.

As of yet, there is no word about whether someone will replace Sainsbury, or if Alt-J will remain a three piece. Some have pointed out on Tumblr that Alt-J is perhaps better suited as a three piece, due to a lyric from their hit song, “Tessellate,” in which Newman sings, “Triangles are my favorite shape.”

Alt-J is currently composing a score for Bruce Goodison’s upcoming film, Leave to Remain. Sainsbury was still in the band when they began composing.

Sainsbury has not made any announcements about his split with the band or his future endeavors, so in the meantime, Alt-J fans will just have to be patient.

Writer Steven Totten is graduate student at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism who loves world music, comic booksand looking for hybrids in culture. Twitter: @stevenjtotten