Arthur Moon Releases New Experimental Pop Track

Arthur Moon - the Brooklyn avant-pop group fronted by Lora-Faye Åshuvud alongside collaborators Cale Hawkins (Quincy Jones, Bilal, Linda Perry), Martin D. Fowler (a composer for This American Life), Dave Palazola and Aviva Jaye - today released an arresting new single, "Status Monster." An intricately layered track that slowly builds, the new song is a slyly raucous entry into the deconstructed pop and "incorrect music" for which Arthur Moon has become known.

"The crooked, looping melody that works as the engine of this song was something I stumbled across one day when I was trying to take a break from synths and electronic sounds,"explains Lora-Faye. "I sat down with an acoustic guitar, and immediately found myself hypnotized by this weirdly beautiful cyclical line. Naturally, it quickly found its way back into my electronic world, but the ruminative space I was in when I was writing that foundational line on the guitar remained. I was thinking about the motion of a spiral, how it can seem from one perspective to simply be looping in place, but from another perspective to be moving forward in the most natural, beautiful way. It feels poignant to me, this kind of path: a rebuke of the rational, normative straight line."

Arthur Moon is the moniker of Lora-Faye Åshuvud, a multi-instrumentalist from New York. Åshuvud takes an intuitive and unusual approach to rhythm and harmony, queering pop, electronic, and experimental sensibilities to make music that is as unpredictable and playful as it is intricate and controlled. NPR's Bob Boilen says Arthur Moon "has the quirky freshness I first heard from New York artists such as Laurie Anderson and Talking Heads in the late 1970s and more recently with Dirty Projectors."

Åshuvud collaborates on the Arthur Moon project with musicians like Cale Hawkins (Quincy Jones, Bilal, Linda Perry), Martin D. Fowler (a composer for This American Life), Dave Palazola and Aviva Jaye. The 2019 debut full-length Arthur Moon was met with support from the likes of NPR, BBC Radio 6, Spotify's New Music Friday, Billboard and more. Arthur Moon's next full-length is forthcoming later this year.

Listen to "Status Monster" here:

Photo Credit: Olivia de Salve Villedieu

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