Under the guise of Circuit des Yeux, Haley Fohr created one of 2021’s densest and most formidable records with -io, a collection of emotionally eruptive tracks which acted like gravitational shifts within our collective consciousness.
As operatic as it was nuanced, -io was a force of nature, sweeping everything along as it tore down expectations and practically rebuilt our notions of what music could accomplish. Today, she has shared a new song called “The Manatee”, and it was recorded during the sessions for her last record — though it feels slightly different than you might expect, with cosmic folk meditations blending together with aqueous interstitials. Her voice is as mesmeric as ever, complimenting the shambling atmospherics and gorgeous stringwork redolent of early Calexico.
Fohr explains the inspiration behind the song and its video: “At 4:30 A.M. on February 4th, 2020 a manatee popped out of the sea and stared directly at me. It was a charged 10 seconds. The experience stuck with me so much that I wrote a song about it.
The music video (directed by Rudy Rubio) is a depiction of my own kind of manatee. I play a wet sea creature trying to make it work in a dry-land society. It is inspired by the scientific understanding that the manatee crawled into the ocean 50,000,000 years ago. The manatee is my reminder that intuition and two legs might be all a person needs to find a more hospitable world – perhaps an undiscovered place to call home.”
Check out Fohr’s upcoming tour dates below and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
2/24 – Vancouver, BC @ St. James Hall
2/25 – Seattle, WA @ Fremont Abbey
2/26 – Astoria, OR @ Anita (solo)
2/27 – Portland, OR @ The Old Church
3/01 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
3/02 – Los Angeles, CA @ Pico Union Project
3/17 – Austin, TX @ SXSW (Quobuz Showcase)
3/25-26 – Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
4/02 – Bern, CD @ Dampfzentrale
4/04 – Berlin, DE @ HAU 1
4/06 – London, UK @ Barbican Centre, Milton Court Concert Hall
4/08 – Den Haag, NL @ Rewire Festival
4/09 – BE, Brussels, BRDCST Festival
4/11 – Paris, FR @ Centre Pompidou
4/13 – Lille, FR, @ L’Auditorium du Conservatoire
4/15 – Dublin, IE @ National Concert Hall Studio
5/03 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
5/04 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
5/06 – Iowa City, IA @ Englert Theatre
5/07 – Columbia, MO @ Stephens Lake Amphitheatre
5/08 – St. Louis, MO @ William A. Kerr Foundation
5/09 – Rock Island, IL @ Rozz Tox
6/02 – Louisville, KY @ Decca
6/03 – Memphis, TN @ Crosstown Arts
6/04 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
6/05 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
6/06 ¬– Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
6/07 – Brooklyn, NY @ Green-Wood Cemetery (Pioneer Works)
6/09 – Brattleboro, VT @ Epsilon Spires
6/10 – Montreal, QC @ Centre PHI
6/11 – Ottawa, ON @ Arts Court – Alma Duncan Space
6/13 – Toronto, ON ¬– 918 Bathurst – Wavelength Music Series
6/14 – Detroit, MI @ Trinosophes
6/16 – Chicago, IL @ Constellation
6/17 – Chicago, IL @ Constellation
9/1-4 – Larmer Tree Gardens, UK @ End of the Road
