Vocalist/producer/multi-instrumentalist EDEN announces the forthcoming release of his new album, no future. Due out via Astralwerks on February 14, no future marks the follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 full-length debut, vertigo. Also today, the Dublin-bred artist born Jonathon Ng premieres no future’s lead single “projector,” available now for purchase and streaming from all digital partners HERE. The track is accompanied by a beautifully haunting video directed by EDEN’s frequent collaborators Zhang + Knight. Watch the “projector” video HERE.
As with all of his music to date, “projector” was recorded and produced by EDEN at his home studio. With its dreamlike textures and heady drum-machine rhythms, the song finds EDEN’s graceful vocal work channeling a heavy-hearted surrender.
“‘projector’ is about appreciating all the ebbs and flows and accepting how things really are instead of wishing they were some other way,” Ng explains. “It started out as a very no-man’s-land kind of song, and then the lyrics ended up reflecting the concept of the death of the universe into a very personal space: this idea that no matter what’s going on in your life right now, everything eventually runs its course.”
Filmed in Bulgaria, the “projector” video perfectly captures the tension between the track’s airy sonic palette and the profound sense of loneliness within its lyrics. As Zhang + Knight explain, the video took shape from a concept based on “trapping EDEN inside a vividly saturated and beautiful prison, watching him trying to escape to the outside world…only to find that the outside world is just as lonely and bleak as the room he has just left behind.”
To achieve the “projector” video’s surrealist quality, Zhang + Knight enlisted a team of painters who spent a week creating an enormous scenic painting of the sky. Throughout the video-making process, the directors drew inspiration from mid-century painters like John Register and Edward Hopper and their tendency toward “images which are extremely bright and colorful but also very sad and evocative.”
“projector” follows the recent release of “untitled,” another track set to appear on no future. Since premiering on October 8th, “untitled” has surpassed 1.5 million global streams, including over 1.2 million streams on Spotify. In addition, the song landed on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist in 12 countries, including the U.S., UK, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand.
Released in January 2018, EDEN’s debut album vertigo shot to No. 1 on the iTunes Top Albums chart in 12 countries, racking up over 200 million streams globally thanks in part to the singles “start//end,” which Billboard deemed, “striking… a nostalgically cast reflection on youth and all-too-relatable feelings of desperation and hope,” “gold” and “crash.” To date, EDEN has amassed over one billion streams for vertigo and his two EPs: 2015’s End Credits and 2016’s i think you think too much of me which features the Lorde-supported lead single “sex.” With the vertigo World Tour selling out across the globe, spring 2019 saw the premiere of “909” – a stand-alone track and the final song released in the vertigo era. “
V Magazine said, “both [EDEN’s] music and his persona seem reflective of his overall goal— to make something grand and magical out of something that seems much smaller… Given the captivating and utterly intriguing output he’s given us so far, the task should be easily doable.” L’Officiel said, “EDEN has come a long way from producing music from the bedroom of his childhood home” and Ladygunn said, EDEN “(walks) the line between stirring beats and subdued lyrics…earnest emotion and ingenuity.”
*Photo by Drew Escriva
