Carmen Villain, aka Carmen Maria Hillestad, is a half-Norwegian, half-Mexican former fashion model who now writes and produces music.
Releasing her debut album Sleeper in 2013, Carmen shared her Planetarium EP earlier this summer and is due to share new album, Infinite Avenue later this year.
Taken from her forthcoming album and featuring the vocals of fellow Norwegian Jenny Hval, is new track Borders, a hypnotic blend of atmospheric rhythms, organic melodies and smokey vocals. The collaboration between Villain and Hyal has introduced a wealth of fresh elements in the work of both artists and this is what they had to say about the creation of Borders:
Carmen explains: “I built the instrumental version from these vocal loops, and sent it through to Jenny, and she delivered this fever dream trip with knockout choruses. Her lyrics brought out memories of a real life nightmare of my own, so I added my own story of post 9/11 borders and the rage and fear I felt after witnessing so much racism.”
Jenny Hval adds: “I was really fascinated by the slow, hypnotic nature of this loop that Carmen sent me. For some reason I started singing about moving really fast, a stream-of-consciousness fever drive in the desert. Maybe I felt like I couldn’t follow the music, that I had to create opposition. Maybe that’s what we always do.”
New album Infinite Avenue is due on 8th September via Smalltown Supersound. Pre-order your copy from here and listen to Borders above.
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