Owen Pallett finally dropped his long-awaited new album, Island

Six years after his last album In Conflict, Toronto singer-songwriter Owen Pallett dropped his new record Island out of the blue on Friday. Recorded live at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra, the album is out on Secret City Records in Canada and Domino in the rest of the world.

In Nov. 2019, ahead of his most recent performance in Montreal — where he premiered some of the material from Island — Pallett told us, “I finally made a classic! I really feel like I did something special with this one. It’s very stripped back — further stripped back than you could possibly anticipate — but it’s simultaneously very dense and orchestral.” See the full interview with Owen Pallett here.

Coupled with the record release was a new video for the song “A Bloody Morning,” conceived and directed during the pandemic.

From a press release:

“The video for ‘A Bloody Morning’ was directed by Vincent René-Lortie and choreographer Brittney Canda. The dancers — ranging in age from 6 to 72 — were filmed with no physical contact, entirely through windows and doorways, including a care facility on strict lockdown.

“’Honestly, at first I wasn’t sold on the concept,’ says Pallett. ‘I worried that the video would end up pornographing the quarantine, and I declined.’” Convinced by the director’s enthusiasm, Owen moved forward.

“After seeing the near-final cut, ‘I was floored,’ Owen says. ‘I couldn’t believe how cathartic it was to see the video, how perfectly it fit the song, and how meaningful and necessary it was for me to see it when I did.’”

Watch the video here:

Listen to Island by Owen Pallett on his website.

See more Montreal music coverage here.

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