Sofie Royer Releases New Album 'Harlequin'

Sofie Royer's new album Harlequin is out today on Stones Throw. Harlequin showcases the Viennese musician's passion for her native city's opera and ballet traditions as well as the baroque lyricism of cabaret, medieval performances and the court jester.

Blended with nostalgia for early aughts reality television and American mall punk subculture, Sofie's second album for Stones Throw presents a montage of peculiar characters, vernacular settings and mysterious chronologies that are as theatrical as they are musical.

During the making of Harlequin, Sofie experimented with her own identity through the act of dress-up. From the album's artwork through to her live performances, she adopts the visual aesthetic and gestures of the court jester, clown and cabaret artist.

Hidden just beneath the album's surface is Sofie's interrogation of her journey between adolescence and adulthood. "I feel permanently stuck in the coming of age novel, like [J.D. Salinger's] The Catcher in the Rye or Franny and Zooey," she says. The album not only weaves a rich tapestry of the city of her adolescence but also hints at her nostalgia for a place that may or may not have ever been real-what she calls the "snowglobing" of her teenage self.

Within these travelogues of her dreams, Sofie also slips in famous (and infamous) characters such as Habsburg suicide Prince Rudolf, Manson acolyte Bobby Beausoleil, chanteuse Jane Birkin, and pays homage to filmmakers Éric Rohmer, Andre Tarkovsky and Josef Daberning. "The record is like one universe that houses all of these figures," she continues. "It's like I've created a play but with existing characters."

Listen to the new single here:

Sofie Royer Live

Sept 23 - Big Sur Camping Weekend - Big Sur, CA*

Sept 27 - Lodge Room - Los Angeles, CA

Oct 4 - Le Trabendo - Paris, FR*

Oct 5 - Melkweg - Amsterdam, NL*

Oct 6 - Metropol - Berlin, DE*

Oct 7 - Tama - Poznań, PL*

Oct 8 - Praga Centrum - Warsaw, PL*

Oct 10 - Kantine - Cologne, DE*

Oct 11 - CHALK - Brighton, UK*

Oct 12 - St John at Hackney Church - London, UK*

Oct 13 - New Century Hall - Manchester, UK*

Oct 14 - Academy - Dublin, IE*

Oct 26 - La Nouvelle Eve - Paris, FR

*support for Toro Y Moi

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