It was once a lonely life for Zomes a.k.a. Asa Osborne. For years, the former Lungfish guitarist had only his trusty keyboard to keep him company. But those days are over, as Osborne is now joined in Zomes by vocalist Hanna Olivegren. In a tale as old as time, Osborne met Olivegren through a mutual friend in Skull Defekts at Sweden’s Perspectives Festivals. Olivegren improvised with Osborne during his set, leading to the two doing an improvised performance in a Stockholm art gallery a few days later. These performances led to Osborne inviting Olivegren to perform with him on the last date of his tour with Beach House and, later, writing the songs on Time Was, Zomes’ third album out April 16 on Thrill Jockey.
This new Zomes record will mark the band’s first recordings as the duo of Osborne and Olivegren. Of course, though, that’s the only new ground being broken in the history of Zomes — except wait! It’s totally not! Time Was also happens to be the group’s first album recorded in a studio, as previous albums were done on a cassette deck. Supposedly, the album even finds the group approaching the territory of pop songs, such as on the record’s title track featuring lyrics based on a poem by Olivegren’s grandfather. Golly, Zomes, have you even left an inch of uncharted territory for yourselves?
Zomes will go on tour this spring, just in time for everyone to recover from these shocking left turns — except wait again! Not only are Zomes going on tour, they’re going on tour as a trio. Where once there was one, now there are three. I need to sit down.
Time Was tracklist:
01. Loveful Heights
02. Monk Bag
03. Silentium
04. Little Lucid Dreamer
05. Footpaths
06. Equinox
07. Time Was
08. Cave Mountain Stream
• Zomes: http://www.thrilljockey.com/thrill/Zomes
• Thrill Jockey: http://www.thrilljockey.com