Body Of Light Announce New Album Bitter Reflection
Listen to the first single “Never Ever” now. // Bitter Reflection is out June 30th on Dais Records.
Photo by: Andrew Jarson and Peter Shikany
“Whether it’s more accurate to call them darkwave, synth-pop, post-punk, EBM or otherwise, what Body of Light makes is dance music. And as dance music goes, this hits every pleasure zone right on target.” – Treble
Bitter Reflection, the fourth album by Arizona desert brotherhood Alex and Andrew Jarson aka Body Of Light, further hones their smoldering strain of tempestuous synth-pop into a transformative suite of anthems, reveries, and reckonings.
Written in the wake of 2019’s neo-EBM classic Time To Kill, they sifted inspiration from hidden moments within their own arcana– childhood tapes, home movies, abandoned demos– asking themselves the question: “How can we make this grow?” Sampled snippets of voice, noise, synth, and field recordings flicker in the periphery of Bitter Reflection‘s 11 tracks, murmuring like nostalgias half-forgotten, or displaced memories. This is music pulled between twin flames of truth and desire, romanticization and reality, catharsis and control, born of a bond sealed by years, dreams, and blood.
Bitter Reflection spins through a gallery of Body Of Light’s ongoing fascinations: Depeche-esque declarations of dread and excess, brooding dance floor epiphanies, lovesick looking glass ballads laced with Art Of Noise orchestral stabs, and smooth, Thomas Dolby city skyline melancholias— the latter showcased on Body Of Light’s new single, “Never Ever.”
Working with Telefon Tel Aviv co-founder Josh Eustis in Los Angeles, Body Of Light incorporated an expanded array of live instrumentation – piano, bass, saxophone, acoustic guitar – in addition to vintage Akai samplers, Moogs, and archaic hardware to Bitter Reflection, giving the albm an eclectic, unpredictable palette.
A new age demands new waves, and Body Of Light belongs at the forefront of a resurgent generation fusing modern methods with the sounds of futures past. Singer Alex Jarson sees their muse clearly, at the axis of anguished transition, temporal collapse, and, just possibly, the brink of hope: “Time is dysphoric. The dream breaks down. Everyone’s beginning to panic, but in the end something will come from it.”
Bitter Reflection will be released on June 30, 2023 via Dais Records. Pre-orders are available here and more music and news from Body Of Light will arrive soon.
Body Of Light, on tour:
4/8 – Los Angeles @ Don Quiote w/ Covenant
5/21 – Phoenix @ The Van Buren w/ Killing Joke, Twin Tribes
6/15 – Fort Worth @ Tulips w/ Choir Boy
6/16 – San Antonio @ Vice Versa w/ Choir Boy, SRSQ
6/17 – Austin – Oblivion Access @ Empire Control Room w/ Drab Majesty, Choir Boy etc.
6/18 – Houston – Warehouse Live w/ Choir Boy, SRSQ
Bitter Reflection track listing:
- Get It Right
- Strike the Match
- This Conversation
- Fortia
- Bitter Reflection
- Out of Season
- Never Ever
- On This Day
- Hyena
- Las Repose
- Deepcolorlights
Bitter Reflection cover art:
