Blistering musical auteur and former BUST cover girl PJ Harvey is all set to lay down her new album—over the course of a month-long exhibit entitled Recording in Progress, and in front of a live audience. After a nearly four-year recording hiatus following the release of 2011’s Let England Shake (which also won her a second Mercury Prize, nbd), Harvey’s newest endeavor and tenth record will waver between a studio LP and a live album.
The 3,000 tickets to the London-based Somerset House studio—featuring one-way glass walls for 360 degree fan visibility—sold out in record time, a testament to Harvey’s persistent popularity over her 23-year career. The sessions begin January 16th and are being made in collaboration with the contemporary art promotional firm Artangel, which described the project to Rolling Stone as, “a mutating, multidimensional sound sculpture.” Color us disappointed not to have landed a few of the now sold-out tickets.
Our longstanding love for PJ Harvey is certainly no secret—and neither is her sometimes polarizing perspective on feminism and what it means to be an artist in this day and age. As controversial as she is creative, Harvey has said in the past that she feels “no responsibility to anyone apart from myself,” including her legion of stalwart fans. “[People] seem to have to intellectualize music, and for me music is not about [that], it’s about physical feeling,” she explains.
All opining aside, the BUST office suite is psyched about how this innovative new album will unfold—and we can’t wait to get our hands on what might end up being PJ Harvey’s most innovative album yet.
Photo by Erin Patrice Obrien (2004)
