Myrkur announces new record, Spine, out on October 20th via Relapse Records

Today, Myrkur unfolds the next chapter in her personal mythology of Amalie Bruun, setting a new course for the enigmatic composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Marked by the birth of her child, and a means of making sense of the storm of emotions in that wake, her forthcoming record, Spine, charts a new course for Bruun through the most turbulent period of her life to new territories beyond, free from genre constraints and giving rise to a new range of emotional and sonic contours. This time around, Myrkur reunited with producer Randall Dunn in Sigur Rós’s Icelandic Sundlaugin studio to negotiate the contrast between the deepest human connection of mother and child, and an increasingly disconnected, alienating world, from pandemic restrictions and isolation to the rise of Artificial Intelligence. But if the claustrophobia of lockdown made an impact on the record, musically it is Myrkur’s most open yet – Bruun’s pristine clear vocals a hyper-sensitive barometer, finely tuned to states where bliss, anxiety, grief, intimacy and psychic wanderlust co-exist, weaving wide-ranging traces of her musical background into rapt and tantalising new forms.

Spine’s lead single, “Like Humans” – which you watch the video for below this article -, is a blend of lush, airy textures and apprehension-inducing, pounding undertow, where Bruun’s voice floats over the top as if from another dimension. Bruun reveals, “When I wrote Like Humans I felt very disconnected and isolated from the human race. The lack of touch and being in the first few years of motherhood forced me to become human in a way I never thought I would. Going through all of these changes at once made me desperately want to feel a connection with the earth and humans. Writing and recording this album helped me heal and succeed with that dream”. Spine is a title with a host of potent connotations: growth, strength, defiance, a core of our being, and flexibility. It’s what holds a human up, and allows us to rebuild. It’s an album that encompasses all these traits – an act of rebirth that balances our most euphoric and our darkest moments.

Spine will be released on October 20th via Relapse Records. Pre-orders are now available here.

Photo credit: Gobinder Jhitta