Hibou Announces New Album 'Halve'

Hibou, the project of Seattle's Peter Michel, is thrilled to announce their new album Halve is out July 26 on Barsuk Records. To celebrate, the band premiered the first single from Halve, "Inside Illumination", via KEXP.

If "Inside Illumination" only slightly quenched your thirst for new Hibou music, never fear! Keep your eye on your favorite streaming services where the band will be releasing one song a week off Halve from now until the record's July 26th release date. Halve is an album full of complex but precisely layered melodies -- on which Michel plays every instrument and produced entirely himself. The outcome is a work filled with swooning, hazy reflections on loss, love, nostalgia, and joy from a 10,000 foot view.

The band has also announced a string of US tour dates starting July 24th in their hometown of Seattle.


Hibou Halve
(Out July 26 - Barsuk Records)

1. Eve (Intro)
2. Clarity
3. "Inside Illumination"
4. Your Echo (To Remember)
5. An Hour Of Vision
6. Following Divide
7. Silver
8. As Always
9. Pure
10. Flood

Amidst an atmosphere of melancholia, Peter Michel has thrown himself into a lifetime's worth of writing, recording and touring belied by his young age. At just 17, the Seattle-based musician toured extensively with dream pop outfit Craft Spells, and most recently met critical acclaim with his personal project, Hibou. In Halve, Hibou's third full length album, Michel creates a characteristically ethereal record addressing the dichoto­mies confronting every young adult in the 21st century: the division between childhood and adulthood, self and society, authenticity and superficiality. But Michel brings these themes additional intensity due to his history of dissociative depersonalization disorder: his mind's frequent inability to feel connected with his body. "Alone I am weak to the breakers / they bring every column down in a reckless desire" he sings in "As Always". The struggle to latch on to his experiences, both present and past, manifests in obsessive control over the complex but precisely layered melodies on the album, in which he produces, plays every instrument, and mixes every song. The outcome is a work filled with swooning, hazy reflections on loss, love, nostalgia, and joy from a 10,000 foot view. It pleads for you to stay in the moment while planting the seed that you will likely lose this memory as it slips into a misty wistfulness.

The result is not sad-in fact, it's often light and embracing. Michel's vocals comfortably twist from echoing whispers to punkish accusations; his guitar from dizzying surf hooks to lush 80s-inspired chords. Control-and the lack of it-reverberates throughout the album, and the ironic consequence is a set of ten deeply vulnerable songs that will find you romanticizing your own childhood, your own teenage years, your own morning. These days, Michel keeps fastidious handwritten journals and hoards VHS tapes from his childhood in order to keep himself grounded- haunting excerpts from these videos bookend the album. "Just be pure, alive, and self assured," Michel repeats towards the end of the album. It seems as much a request for the world as a reminder to himself: this is within my control. This I can promise. His music is a testament to fixation as a cure for apathy, and the fantasies that emerge from a mind unmoored.

Hibou Summer 2019 US Tour

Wed July 24th Seattle, WA (Chop Suey)
Thu July 25th Spokane, WA (The Bartlett)
Fri July 26th Missoula, MT (VFW)
Mon July 29th Minneapolis, MN (7th Street Entry)
Tue July 30th Chicago, IL (Subt Downstairs)
Wed July 31st Cincinnati, OH (Motr Pub)
Thu August 1st Indianapolis, IN (Melody Inn)
Sun August 4th Philadelphia, PA (Ortlieb's)
Mon August 5th New Haven, CT (Cafe Nine)
Tue August 6th, New York, NY (Mercury Lounge)
Wed August 7th, Washington, DC (Pie Shop)
Thu August 8th, Asheville, NC (Mothlight)
Sat August 10th, New Orleans, LA (Gasa Gasa)
Sun August 11th, Houston, TX (White Oak Music Hall)
Mon August 12th Austin, TX (Hotel Vegas)
Tue August 13th El Paso, TX (The Nature House)
Wed August 14th Phoenix, AZ (Rebel Lounge)
Thu August 15th San Diego, CA (Space Bar)
Fri August 16th Los Angeles, CA (The Hi Hat)
Sun August 18th SF, CA (Bottom of the Hill)
Tue August 20th Portland, OR (Liquor Store)