Holly Herndon has released a new track titled ‘Frontier’. You can check it out above.
It’s the third track to be unveiled from her forthcoming album PROTO, which is set for release on 4AD on May 10.
Inspiration for ‘Frontier’, Herndon says, came from a Sacred Harp Meetup in Berlin which was jointly led by Evelyn Saylor who made up part of the ensemble of collaborators that worked on the new album. Saylor was brought on board to help arrange ‘Frontier’.
Speaking about the meetup, Herndon continues: "People gathered in a square to sing facing each other. When I stood in the middle the power of the voices brought me to tears. It was partly pure sonics and the beauty of the songs, but also the sight of witnessing people from all different backgrounds come together under such a simple and elegant premise.
"There were visitors from afar for whom the experience clearly had some deep religious significance. There were even more visitors clearly drawn to the event for other reasons, albeit the nature of the communion itself, or just to nerd out on the music. It felt like a rare union."
PROTO is Holly Herndon’s third full-length album and follows on from 2015’s Platform. For this record, she assembled an ensemble of vocalists in her base of Berlin, working alongside them as well as her partner Mat Dryhurst, ensemble developer Jules LaPlace, sometime collaborator Jlin and an A.I. ‘baby’ dubbed Spawn.
Revisit our 2015 interview with Herndon here and pre-order here.