PERFUME GENIUS UNVEILS NEW ALBUM 'UGLY SEASON'

The release arrives alongside an official short film, Pygmalion’s Ugly Season.

Image: Bryan Ling.

US indie icon Perfume Genius' new album, Ugly Season, has arrived!

Written as an accompaniment to choreographer Kate Wallich’s immersive dance piece, The Sun Still Burns Here, the record was produced by Perfume Genius and GRAMMY-winning producer and long-time collaborator Blake Mills. The musical project of Mike Hadreas, the album is accompanied by a short film, Pygmalion’s Ugly Season, created alongside Alan Wyffels and producer Blake Mills.

“Some were ‘traditional’ songs that I took into the studio, while other pieces were born out of improvisations between Blake and I. Alan wrote ‘Scherzo’ in its entirety. I gave him free reign,” says Hadreas. “We're both the same age, I feel very aligned with Jacolby when it comes to taste and certain pop culture obsessions. There is also a spiritual harmony between us in the way we approach work and the similar energetic spaces we want to inhabit, realize and share."

"This project is the genesis of a whole new direction that I’m taking, one that I’ve been thinking about within this endemic culture, since 2020,” says Satterwhite. “Mike and I are both writing scripts. My visual narrative serendipitously mirrors the lyrical direction in his music; it’s a rare, like-minded bond. It’s a creation myth. How do you architecturally mold and render an idealised version of utopia? It’s about making something that you desire so beyond your scope that it’s hard to grapple into a concrete form.”

Earlier this month, Perfume Genius brought his live show to Australia, performing in Melbourne and Brisbane, also stopping in Sydney to headline a show at Carriageworks as part of their program for Vivid Sydney.

Ugly Season is out now!