Skullcrusher has unveiled her highly anticipated new album, And Your Song is Like a Circle, set for release on October 17th through her new label, Dirty Hit. The announcement arrives with the lead single, “Exhale,” a track characterised by its exquisite vocal filigrees expanding into a lush blend of synthesisers and strings.
Of the track, she shares,
Exhale is about noticing the moment when a song is first conceived. There is a part of me that wants to stop there and leave the song unfinished, before structure settles in and the song evolves. Instead, I allow it to form & accept whatever it may become. This process feels natural, like taking a pause at the top of your inhale before letting it all out. Maybe through acknowledging this process, I can feel more at peace with change in general. When thoughts, words & sounds interact in a certain way they can reveal a path forward. Sometimes I want to linger before this path, in a space that feels hidden and safe, but in the end I take the path & surrender to change
Recorded over several years since her celebrated 2022 debut, Quiet the Room, And Your Song is Like a Circle delves into the subtle imprints of ineffable experiences rather than capturing them directly. The album gracefully shifts between elegant folk and crystalline electronics, echoing the atmospheric realms of artists like Grouper and Julia Holter. It profoundly examines how grief transforms, making the sensation of loss as tangible as what was lost itself.
Artist Helen Ballentine began crafting Circle after departing Los Angeles, her home for nearly a decade, returning to her birthplace in New York’s Hudson Valley. Subsequent years of profound isolation led Ballentine to immerse herself in art that mirrored the disorienting aftershocks of cross-country relocation. While Skullcrusher’s previous work explored the detailed intimacies of domestic spaces, Circle expands across vast landscapes, swirling, drifting, and searching, approaching a powerful emotional event horizon with long, slow strokes.
