Video: Arsun Shares 'If You Must Leave'; Debut LP Out Today

New York singer-songwriter Arsun (Arsun Sorrenti) has released his debut album, Babe I Hear Thunder In Your Heart. Having already established himself as an artist in demand as part of Cat Power's band for her re-creation of Bob Dylan's 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert — and joining her on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon — the record reflects Sorrenti's uncanny ability to conjure his own songwriting in a way that sounds classic but feels brand new.

As heard on the lush, orchestral chamber-pop of “Send Her My Way,” the scorched blues-rock of the record's title track, and the rollicking folk-rock of “On the Dark Water's Edge” — featured in a campaign by French luxury fashion house Yves Saint Laurent — the record is a true culmination of the singer-songwriter's burgeoning talent.
 
Accompanying the release is a music video for “If You Must Leave,” directed by Tasmin Meyer Ersahin, and first premiered via Magnet Magazine. The video's snowy New York setting matches the track's aching lilt, and distills the delicate balance between the past and present that Arsun has made his specialty.

“I've always liked the idea of taking a timeless style of music and trying different things with it—making a unique sound that people haven't heard before even as it's still focused on working with traditional instruments and song structures,” he says. 

The stylistic sweep of Babe I Hear Thunder In Your Heart is sneakily impressive; this is music with detail and personality. The nine songs are practically a sonic travelogue when it comes to charting Sorrenti's own musical journey, laying out a map of where he's been while suggesting that the open road ahead of him is endless with possibility. “I want to get to a place where my inspirations are helping me repurpose these human experiences in a fresh and modern way,” he says. If Babe I Hear Thunder In Your Heart is any indication, Sorrenti's journey to that point might be shorter than he thinks; if anything, he's already arrived.
 
Arsun will be opening for Cat Power in Paris at Folies Bergère on April 28 and 29 followed by another performance at The London Palladium in London on May 1. Tickets and more information for those dates are available here.

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