Angel Olsen – 7th Level Music

Angel Olsen introduces you to some of her favorite new bands, and covers them, on the upcoming “Cosmic Waves Volume 1.”

Angel Olsen announces Cosmic Waves Volume 1, the second release on Olsen’s somethingscosmic, out December 6th. Cosmic Waves Volume 1 is a compilation project featuring new, original songs curated by Olsen from Poppy Jean Crawford, Coffin Prick, Sarah Grace White, Maxim Ludwig and Camp Saint Helene on Side A, and a collection of covers from the aforementioned artists performed and recorded by Olsen on Side B.

A few years ago, Olsen quietly formed somethingscosmic, a new imprint and a home for her to have “the flexibility to release when and how I want to with the help from my longtime partners at Jagjaguwar.” Cosmic Waves Volume 1 is a compilation reimagined as a dialogue. Each song, unsurprisingly, illuminates a new artist Olsen finds spectacular. Hearing Olsen refract these artists’ songs back to them reveals the depth of Olsen’s imagination and spotlights these new talents as well. These artists draw from a sprawling, myriad sounds, eras and inspirations. Poppy Jean Crawford’s magnetic growl and guitar-god heaviness; Coffin Prick’s reckless, psychedelic fuzz; Sarah Grace White’s hypnotic voice and melody; Maxim Ludwig’s expert minimalism; and Camp Saint Helene’s beautiful, big sky folk.

Today sees the release of Cosmic Waves Volume 1 opener “Glamorous” by Crawford, and Olsen’s cover of Crawford’s “The Takeover.” When discussing Crawford, Olsen says “I remember speaking with my good friend Angela Ricciardi about Poppy starring in the film The Giver Gives to Give, and was immediately transfixed by her overall vibe and ‘30s era beauty. But it wasn’t until later when Angela shared one of Poppy’s early demo grunge songs with me that I was blown away. Poppy gives me hope that guitar music will come back. She has such a powerful voice made for pop while also having this edge to her that, for me, communicates the kind of rage I can always relate to.”

Stream “Glamorous” by Poppy Jean Crawford &
“The Takeover (Poppy Jean Crawford Cover)” by Angel Olsen

Watch Visualizer for Poppy Jean Crawford’s “Glamorous”

“As someone that emerged into the music scene through a small tape label, I’ve wanted to continue the spirit of discovery and of my debut release, Strange Cacti, while supporting and collaborating with artists and friends whose music I have been moved by. I feel there is something unique and special about covering another artist’s song. We all make it our own, or we try to, but I personally always learn something new about the process when I’m engaging someone else’s words and melodies in such a close way. It’s fun to write and make my own stuff, but listening to and putting myself into various different styles of songs can lead to new ways of thinking and creating.”

— Angel Olsen

On December 6th, somethingscosmic will present the Cosmic Waves Volume 1 release show at In The Meantime in Los Angeles. The bill will include Sarah Grace White, Maxim Ludwig, Camp Saint Helene, Poppy Jean Crawford, Coffin Prick (DJ), and special guests.

Pre-order Cosmic Waves Volume 1

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Angel Olsen releases a cover of “Gloria” from upcoming EP of 1980’s music cover songs.

Today, Angel Olsen announces the Aisles EP, comprised of head turning covers of ‘80s classics and the debut release on her new Jagjaguwar imprintsomethingscosmic, out August 20th (digitally) and September 24th (physically). The EP features ambitious takes on five covers, including today’s “Gloria” (Laura Branigan), plus “Eyes Without A Face” (Billy Idol), “Safety Dance”(Men Without Hats), “If You Leave” (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) and “Forever Young” (Alphaville). Olsen comments, “I know it’s not really in my history to do something unintentional or just for the hell of it, but my connection to these songs is pretty straightforward, I just wanted to have a little fun and be a little more spontaneous, and I think I needed to remember that I could!”

The Aisles EP was recorded in the winter of 2020 at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios with co-producer and engineer Adam McDaniel. Olsen had known McDaniel for years, and became better acquainted while trying to conquer the audio of live-stream at-home performances last spring. McDaniel and his wife Emily opened their home to Olsen throughout the previous summer and made it a safe space to create and let go before beginning tracking. “I told Adam I had an idea to record some covers and bring some of the band into the mix, or add other players. I needed to laugh and have fun and be a little less serious about the recording process in general,” says Olsen. “I thought about completely changing some of the songs and turning them inside out. I’d come over to find Adam had set up five or so synthesizers, and we’d get lost on a part for a while messing with some obscure pedal I knew nothing about. We’d spend a good amount of time going through sounds before finding one or two, sometimes we’d get real weird and decide to just go with it. ”

Olsen’s take on “Gloria,” released today, crawls with reverberating synth and an arresting cello arrangement. As the song nears its end, her vocals ricochet into a dramatic vibrato. “I’d heard ‘Gloria’ for the first time at a family Christmas gathering and was amazed at all the aunts who got up to dance. I imagined them all dancing and laughing in slow motion, and that’s when I got the idea to slow the entire song down and try it out in this way.”

Angel Olsen’s Aisles EP follows the Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories Box Set, released this past spring, and her new single with Sharon Van Etten, “Like I Used To.” It is the premiere release for somethingscosmic. “I’m very excited to be introducing somethingscosmic, an imprint that will serve as the home for all my covers, collaborations, and one off singles,” says Olsen. “In this time away from touring I have been inspired to create more, and somethingscosmic will give the me flexibility to release when and how I want to with the help from my longtime partners at Jagjaguwar. The hope is that it will become a place for all of my creative endeavors, music and otherwise.”
Listen to Angel Olsen’s “Gloria”

Pre-order Aisles EP

Aisles EP Tracklist
1. Gloria
2. Eyes Without A Face
3. Safety Dance
4. If You Leave
5. Forever Young

Angel Olsen Tour Dates
Sat. Sept. 11 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Fri. Oct. 29 – Sun. Oct. 31 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Music Festival

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen combine their superpowers for a fine new single.

oday, Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen unveil a true knockout of a song, “Like I Used To,” with a gorgeous accompanying video. The track opens less with a chord than with a crash, an announcement to stop what you’re doing and stand at attention: Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen are singing together. “Like I Used To” takes its place among the great anthems: a powerful and joyful ode to reclaiming one’s own space. Sharon’s troubadour swagger is sure-footed and stadium-sized. Angel’s inquisition is piercing, evocative, impossible to dodge. The combination of their voices is so beautiful and electric, it’s almost destabilizing, and it’s only furthered by John Congleton’s production, who has worked closely with both in the past: Sharon on her most recent album, Remind Me Tomorrow, and Angel throughout her career on Burn Your Fire for No Witness and All Mirrors.

The song’s stunning accompanying video, directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch and shot in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree at various locations, elevates the overall vibe and free spirit of “Like I Used To.” It is a visual representation that truly celebrates the collaborative nature of these two special songwriters and performers.
Watch Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen’s Video for “Like I Used To”
Both Sharon and Angel have long-admired one another from the close-but-far distance of life on tour, a life that unifies them even as they’ve spent years criss-crossing each other from miles, countries, continents apart. Ask them each about the song’s origin story and they inadvertently stitch a mirror together, a story of mutual admiration and, lucky for us, eventual collaboration. “Even though we weren’t super close, I always felt supported by Angel and considered her a peer in this weird world of touring. We highway high-fived many times along the way…I finally got the courage in June of 2020 to reach out to see if she would want to sing together. I got greedy and quickly sent her a track I had been working on,” says Sharon.

“I’ve met with Sharon here and there throughout the years and have always felt too shy to ask her what she’s been up to or working on,” says Angel. “The song reminded me immediately of getting back to where I started, before music was expected of me, or much was expected of me, a time that remains pure and real in my heart.” To call it magic is to cheapen the connection between these two masters, but when you listen it’s hard to call it anything else.

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Angel Olsen to release box set of three albums and a 40-page book due out May 07th.

Today, Angel Olsen announces Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, a box set featuring All Mirrors and Whole New Mess, plus a bonus LP titled Far Memory, and a 40-page book collection, out May 7th on Jagjaguwar. In conjunction with the announcement, she presents “It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess).” Originally conceived as a double album, All Mirrors and Whole New Mess were distinct parts of a larger whole, twin stars that each expressed something bigger and bolder than Angel Olsen had ever made. Now, with Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, these twin stars become a constellation with the full extent of the songs’ iterations: all the alternate takes, b-sides, remixes and reimaginings are here, together. Alongside, a 40-page book collection tells a similar story, not just through outtakes and unseen photos but through the smaller, evocative details: handwritten lyrics, a favorite necklace, a beaded chandelier. As if it could be more plainly stated (there’s nothing more), Angel adds one cover here: a loving, assertive rendition of Roxy Music’s “More Than This.”

“It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)” was recorded during the All Mirrors session, and is an alternate version of “Whole New Mess.” It has an acoustic backbone, blooming with Olsen’s singular voice. As it continues, the song erupts with drums, electric bass, and Nate Walcott’s brass arrangement.

Watch/Listen to “It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)” Via the Visualizer

Released in 2019, All Mirrors is massive in scope and sound, tracing Olsen’s ascent into the unknown, to a place of true self-acceptance, no matter how dark, or difficult, or seemingly lonely. All Mirrors is colossal, moving, dramatic in an Old Hollywood manner. Recorded before All Mirrors but released after, Whole New Mess is the bones and beginnings of the songs that would rewrite Olsen’s story. This is Angel Olsen in her classic style: stark solo performances, echoes and open spaces, her voice both whispered and enormous. All Mirrors and Whole New Mess presented the two glorious extremes of an artist who, in these songs, became new by embracing herself entirely.

In first speaking about Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, Olsen said, “It feels like part of my writing has come back from the past, and another part of it was waiting to exist.” What better way to articulate timelessness. If Whole New Mess holds the truths of Olsen’s enduring self, and All Mirrors documents her ascent toward a new future, Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories exists out of time, capturing the whole artist beyond this one sound, or that one recording, or any one idea. It is a definitive collection, not just of these songs, but of their revelations and their writer, from their simplest origins to their mightiest realizations.

Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories is limited to 3,000 physical pieces. To celebrate the announcement, Olsen filmed an unboxing video to show the scope of the package.
Watch the Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories Unboxing Video

Pre-order Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories

Far Memory Bonus LP Tracklist:
1. All Mirrors (Johnny Jewel Remix)
2. New Love Cassette (Mark Ronson Remix)
3. More Than This
4. Smaller
5. It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)
6. Alive and Dying (Waving, Smiling)

All Mirrors Tracklist:
1. Lark
2. All Mirrors
3. Too Easy
4. New Love Cassette
5. Spring
6. What It Is
7. Impasse
8. Tonight
9. Summer
10. Endgame
11. Chance

Whole New Mess Tracklist
1. Whole New Mess
2. Too Easy (Bigger Than Us)
3. (New Love) Cassette
4. (We Are All Mirrors)
5. (Summer Song)
6. Waving, Smiling
7. Tonight (Without You)
8. Lark Song
9. Impasse (Workin’ For The Name)
10. Chance (Forever Love)
11. What It Is (What It Is)

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Angel Olsen releases title track from upcoming album – “Whole New Mess.”

“I had gone through this breakup, but it was so much bigger than that—I’d lost friendships, too. When you get out of a relationship, you have to examine who you are or were in all the relationships. I wanted to record when I was still processing these feelings. These are the personal takes, encapsulated in a moment.” — Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen will release Whole New Mess, her first solo album since her 2012 debut, on August 28th via Jagjaguwar. A super intimate and vulnerable emotional portrait that shows her grappling with a period of personal tumult, Whole New Mess presents Olsen working through her open wounds and raw nerves with just a few guitars and some microphones, isolated in a century-old church in the Pacific Northwest. In conjunction, Olsen presents the lead single, “Whole New Mess,” with a video directed by longtime collaborator Ashley Connor. Additionally, she announces Cosmic Stream 3, the third in her livestream series, which will air on the album’s release date and stream from the Hazel Robinson Amphitheater in Asheville, NC.

Whole New Mess follows All Mirrors, Olsen’s grand 2019 masterpiece (and a top 10 critically acclaimed record). At least nine of the eleven songs on Whole New Mess should sound familiar to anyone who has heard All Mirrors. “Lark,” “Summer,” “Chance”—they are all here, at least in some skeletal form and with slightly different titles. But these are not the demos for All Mirrors. Instead, Whole New Mess is its own record with its own immovable mood. If the lavish orchestral arrangements and cinematic scope of All Mirrors are the sound of Olsen preparing her scars for the wider world to see, Whole New Mess is the sound of her first figuring out their shape, making sense for herself of these injuries.

To record Whole New Mess, Olsen asked for a studio recommendation from Electro-Vox head engineer and a deep kindred spirit Michael Harris. She wanted to find a space where, as she puts it, “vulnerability exists.” They settled on The Unknown, the Catholic church that Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum and producer Nicholas Wilbur converted into a recording studio in the small town of Anacortes, Washington. Anacortes would act as a kind of harbor for Olsen, limiting distractions as she tried to burrow inside of these songs. “I hadn’t been to The Unknown, but I knew about its energy. I wanted to go sit with the material and be with it in a way that felt like a residency,” Olsen says. “I didn’t need a lot, since it was just me and a guitar. But I wanted someone else there to hold me accountable for trying different things.” In late October 2018 prior to recording All Mirrors, Olsen and Harris lived for 10 days in a rental and built a daily ritual of getting coffee each morning in a nearby bookstore. They hiked Mount Erie, visited state parks, and strolled the empty streets of Anacortes beneath a full moon. But mostly, the sessions were casual, relaxed, and quiet, allowing Olsen the space to fully explore these feelings.

The results are staggering, somehow disarmingly candid and dauntingly personal at once. The opener and title track—one of two songs here that did not appear on All Mirrors—is a blunt appraisal of how low Olsen got and how hard the process of pulling herself back upright was, especially when being an artist can mean turning your emotions into someone else’s entertainment. “Oh, I’ll really do the change,” she repeats at the start and finish, her voice wavering as she tries to buy the mantra she’s selling. “The reality is that artists are often never home so health, clear mindedness and grounding is hard to come by,” says Olsen. “The song is a mental note to try and stay sane, keep healthy, remember to breathe wherever I happen to be, because there is no saving it for back home.”

Considered alongside All Mirrors, Whole New Mess is a poignant and pointed reminder that songs are more than mere collections of words, chords, and even melodies. They are webs of moods and moments and ideas, qualities that can change from one month to the next and can say just as much as the perfect progression or an exquisite chord. In that sense, these 11 songs—solitary, frank, and unflinching examinations of what it’s like to love, lose, and survive—are entirely new. This is the sound of Angel Olsen, sorting through the kind of trouble we’ve all known, as if just for herself and whoever else needs it.
Watch Angel Olsen’s “Whole New Mess” Video

Pre-order Whole New Mess

Purchase Cosmic Stream 3 Tickets

Whole New Mess Tracklist
1. Whole New Mess
2. Too Easy (Bigger Than Us)
3. (New Love) Cassette
4. (We Are All Mirrors)
5. (Summer Song)
6. Waving, Smiling
7. Tonight (Without You)
8. Lark Song
9. Impasse (Workin’ For The Name)
10. Chance (Forever Love)
11. What It Is (What It Is)

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

The title track from Angel Olsen’s upcoming album, “All Mirrors,” is all dreamy dark wave.

*All Mirrors* cover art / photo by Cameron McCool

“In every way — from the making of it, to the words, to how I feel moving forward, this record is about owning up to your darkest side, finding the capacity for new love and trusting change even when you feel
like a stranger.” — Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen will release her fourth full-length album, All Mirrors, on October 4th via Jagjaguwar. Olsen’s bold and unexpected All Mirrors comes over three years after the release of MY WOMAN, a top 10 critically praised album of 2016. In conjunction with today’s announcement, Olsen unveils the title track and its video, directed by Ashley Connor and conceived by Olsen.

On her vulnerable new album, All Mirrors, Olsen takes an introspective deep dive towards internal destinations and revelations. In the process of making this album, she found a new sound and voice, a blast of fury mixed with hard won self-acceptance. All Mirrors gets its claws into you on both micro and macro levels. Of course, there’s that singular vibrato, always so very close — seemingly simple, cooed phrases expand into massive ideas about the inability to love and universal loneliness. And then suddenly — huge string arrangements and bellowing synth swells emerge, propelling the apocalyptic tenor.

In creating All Mirrors, Olsen initially planned to work on a dual record release — a set of raw and real solo songs and a full band version of the same songs — both to be released at once. She recorded the solo version with producer Michael Harris in Anacortes, Washington. There, she was determined to keep it bare bones in order to contrast with the not yet recorded full band record. Soon after that was completed, she began work on the more ambitious, fleshed out version with producer John Congleton, with whom she collaborated on 2014’s breakout Burn Your Fire for No Witness, arranger Jherek Bischoff, multi-instrumentalist/arranger/pre-producer Ben Babbitt, and a 14-piece orchestra.

While remaking the album with full production and new collaborators, Olsen developed a new relationship with control, and as she got further into the process, she realized she “needed to separate these two records and release All Mirrors in its heaviest form. . . It was impossible for me to deny how powerful and surprising the songs had become. The truth is that I may have never allowed this much sonic change in the first place had I not already made an account of the same songs in their purest form.”

Over heavy synth and oscillating percussion, lead single “All Mirrors” navigates between the perception of what one wants to see and reality. “I chose this one as the title because I liked the theme: the theme of how we are all mirrors to and for each other,” says Olsen. “Even if that is not all of it, there is always an element of projection in what we’d like to see in people and scenarios and in the way we see ourselves in those scenarios, with those people.”

The Jagjaguwar limited and exclusive All Mirrors bundle includes the album on opaque aquamarine vinyl and the All Mirrors 7” on silver with black splatter vinyl. The 7” includes two versions of the album’s title track: “All Mirrors” album version and “We Are All Mirrors” solo version.

As previously announced, the All Mirrors tour kicks off on October 28th. A full European leg has been added. All dates are below.
Watch Angel Olsen’s “All Mirrors” Video –
https://youtu.be/Jjt698Zv5jQ

All Mirrors Tracklist:
1. Lark
2. All Mirrors
3. Too Easy
4. New Love Cassette
5. Spring
6. What It Is
7. Impasse
8. Tonight
9. Summer
10. Endgame
11. Chance

Pre-order All Mirrors –
https://angelolsen.ffm.to/allmirrors

Angel Olsen Tour Dates:
(new dates in bold)
Mon. Oct. 28 – Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom &
Wed. Oct. 30 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes *
Thu. Oct. 31 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall *
Fri. Nov. 1 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre *
Mon. Nov. 4 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse *
Tue. Nov. 5 – New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre *
Thu. Nov. 7 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s (Levitation) *
Fri. Nov. 8 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater *
Sat. Nov. 9 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion *
Sun. Nov. 10 – Lawrence, KS @ The Granada *
Tue. Nov. 12 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue *
Wed. Nov. 13 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee *
Thu. Nov. 14 – Chicago, IL @ The Riviera Theatre *
Fri. Nov. 15 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre *
Sat. Nov. 16 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre *
Mon. Nov. 18 – Montreal, QC @ mTelus *
Tue. Nov. 19 – Boston, MA @ Royale *
Fri. Nov. 22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel *
Sat. Nov. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel ^
Mon. Dec. 2 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren *
Tue. Dec. 3 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park *
Thu. Dec. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Palace Theater *
Fri. Dec. 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ Palace Theater #
Sat. Dec. 7 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *
Mon. Dec. 9 – Portland, OR @ Roseland *
Tue. Dec. 10 – Vancouver, BC @ The Orpheum Theatre *
Wed. Dec. 11 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre *
Fri. Dec. 13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot *
Sat. Dec. 14 – Denver, CO @ The Gothic Theatre *
Sun. Dec. 15 – Denver, CO @ The Gothic Theatre *
Thu. Jan. 23 – Lisbon, PT @ Capitólio
Fri. Jan. 24 – Porto, PT @ Hard Club
Sat. Jan. 25 – Madrid, ES @ Sala BUT
Sat. Jan. 26 – Barcelona, ES @ Sala Razzmatazz
Tue. Jan. 28 – Geneva, CH @ Festival Antigel
Wed. Jan. 29 – Munich, DE @ Kammerspiele
Thu. Jan. 30 – Berlin, DE @ Huxleys Neue Welt
Fri. Jan. 31 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
Sat. Feb. 1 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller
Mon. Feb. 3 – Stockholm, SE @ Vasateatern
Tue. Feb. 4 – Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik
Wed. Feb. 5 – Hamburg, DE @ Gruenspan
Thu. Feb. 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Fri. Feb. 7 – Antwerp, BE @ De Roma
Sat. Feb. 8 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale
Mon. Feb. 10 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Tue. Feb. 11 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Thu. Feb. 13 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz
Fri. Feb. 14 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom

* = w/ Vagabon
^ = w/ Madi Diaz
#= w/ Rodrigo Amarante
&= w/ Lean Year

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