Perfume Genius has shared a new short film to accompany the release of his forthcoming album, Ugly Season.
The 28-minute film, Pygmalion’s Ugly Season, features music from the new record and was created by Perfume Genius, AKA Mike Hadreas, together with visual artist Jacolby Satterwhite. Watch the film in full above.
Out later this week, Ugly Season, the album, was initially written to accompany Hadreas and choreographer Kate Wallich’s immersive dance piece, The Sun Still Burns Here, which was commissioned by the Seattle Theatre Group and Mass MoCA, and performed during residencies in Seattle, Minneapolis, New York City and Boston throughout 2019. When further performances of the project could no longer go ahead due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hadreas gave the completed recordings for Ugly Season to Satterwhite to use however he liked.
"I gave him free reign," said Hadreas in a statement. "We’re both the same age, I feel very aligned with Jacolby when it comes to taste and certain pop culture obsessions. There is also a spiritual harmony between us in the way we approach work and the similar energetic spaces we want to inhabit, realise and share."
Speaking about their collaboration, Satterwhite added: "My visual narrative serendipitously mirrors the lyrical direction in [Hadreas’] music; it’s a rare, like-minded bond. It’s a creation myth. How do you architecturally mould and render an idealised version of utopia? It’s about making something that you desire so beyond your scope that it’s hard to grapple into a concrete form."
Matador will release Ugly Season on June 17, 2022.
