Holly Herndon shares new song ‘Frontier’ + Visuals by Darío Alva – New LP PROTO out May 10

Photo credit: Boris Camaca

Holly Herndon brings the full force of her vocal ensemble to the fore with new single ‘Frontier’ and accompanying visuals by Darío Alva. An interpretation of Appalachian Sacred Harp music, the song considers a ‘Frontier’ of green or of dust – the consequences of the choices we make as a society. ‘Frontier’ follows the euphoric ‘Eternal’ and skittering beatbox of ‘Godmother’ [featuring Jlin and Spawn], all taken from her third album, PROTO, out on the 10th of May via 4AD / Rhythmethod.

“At a Sacred Harp meet up, the singers sit in a square or circle, facing each other and singing loudly a capella,” Holly explains. “When I stood in the middle of one, I started crying because it was so incredible.”

Holly’s third full-length album PROTO (out 10 May) isn’t about A.I., but much of it was created in collaboration with her own A.I. ‘baby’, Spawn. PROTO makes reference to what Holly refers to as the protocol era, where rapidly surfacing ideological battles over the future of A.I. protocols, centralised and decentralised internet protocols, and personal and political protocols compel us to ask ourselves who are we, what are we, what do we stand for, and what are we heading towards?

Since her arrival in 2012, Holly has successfully mined the edges of electronic and Avant Garde pop and emerged with a dynamic and disruptive canon of her own, all while studying for her soon-to-be-completed PhD at Stanford University, researching machine learning and music. Her LP Platform closed out 2015 by gracing year-end lists from Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME, and The Wire. In the aftermath, Radiohead hand-picked her to open up their European tour.

“PROTO is as avant-garde as we’ve come to expect from Herndon’s wild and mighty brain, tempered by plenty of beauty and harmony.” – DJ Mag – Album of the Month

“The future of A.I..” – CNN

“Herndon’s machine-R&B masterpiece is a total sensory assault..” – The Guardian on ‘Eternal’

“Multilayered, glitchy beatboxing, human input dispensed with inhuman timing.” – NY Times on ‘Godmother’

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PROTO Tracklisting:

1. Birth

2. Alienation

3. Canaan (Live Training)

4. Eternal

5. Crawler

6. Extreme Love (with Lily Anna Hayes and Jenna Sutela)

7. Frontier

8. Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

9. SWIM

10. Evening Shades (Live Training)

11. Bridge (with Martine Syms)

12. Godmother (with Jlin)

13. Last Gasp

Holly Herndon
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