Racing Heart made an album with Jenny Hval (stream "Squaring the Circle")
Brooklyn-via-Oslo musician Mathias H. Tjønn is releasing his second album as Racing Heart, What Comes After, on September 16 via Misra Records. The album was written and recorded in collaboration with fellow Norwegian Jenny Hval, who contributed lyrics and vocals. It was produced by Hanne Hukkelberg (who’s worked with Todd Terje and Bryan Ferry) and features drums and programming by Martin Langlie (who’s worked with Susanne Sundfor). We’re premiering the sweeping “Squaring the Circle,” and here’s what Mathias tells us about it:
The lyrics of this song came out of reading old CIA covert ops manuals, frontline reports from the War on Terror and the like. I wanted to give the impersonal language they use a more human face, thinking about what all these endless wars on dubious pretences that we’ve seen since 2003, does to the people fighting them. Everyone tells themselves stories to stay alive and justify why it is we do what we do, but it must be that much more intense when there’s lives on the line. Jenny (Hval) really helped me ground this in a flesh-and-blood person through working together on the lyrics, so that it’s not just dogma put to a beat. Wheezing away throughout we hear my grandma’s old harmonium, and the roaring bass is Kristine Tjøgersen playing a contrabass clarinet, the biggest woodwind I’ve ever seen!
Listen:
Jenny Hval has her own new album and tour on the way.
