Joviale – Snow
Joviale releases the new single, “Snow,” from their debut album, Mount Crystal, out September 12th via Ghostly International.
Following the rhythmic bliss of early album preview, “Moonshine,” the sinister, yet majestic “HARK!,” and last month’s “Let Me Down.” “Snow” finds Joviale surrounded by glistening synth, bass, and horn-like pulses, likening faded love to a cold winter’s day. “This song is an exercise in tension and sensuality,” says Joviale. “Do you know what it is like to love someone who makes you feel cold inside?”
Co-produced by Joviale with John Carroll Kirby and Jkarri, Mount Crystal is an ascendant, conceptual album. The songs are electric and soulful, dashed with jazzy experimentation, rhythmic rock, and vibrant sound design, all realized with a cast of collaborators including Sam Wilkes, Carter Lang, and Will Miller. Initially imagined as a play, Mount Crystal brims and bursts with life — peril, humour, and the buzz of the human spirit — conjuring a metaphysical climb that transcends the audio format. With plans to further manifest the vision as a live set and more, Joviale sets the course:
“Mount Crystal’s lore is driven by the embodiment of desire, danger, and desperation. A mirrored dimension in a distant reality where nothing is left unsaid. These chapters crave to tear apart the illusion of pleasure by alchemising the unrelenting pain I’ve experienced in my efforts to love, deny, and embrace the sweetest melodies with the sweetest friends.”
Joviale’s personality reverberates across Mount Crystal’s densely detailed world. They speak with swagger and sing skyward, cutting through rubbery basslines and angular strums, synthesised horns and harps, unruly beats, and unusual sound bites. The antithesis of background music, these songs leap from headphones much like an engrossing movie makes itself known on screen. Joviale’s sonic references span Sade, Kate Bush, Janet Jackson, Todd Rundgren, ‘60s girl groups, Japanese composers, and “the freaky guys and girls and the divas of the ‘80s… glamorous rock’n’roll, Rick James, Prince, Quincy.” Artists who prioritised playful ambition and bravado.
While set up as fictional abstractions, these songs also reflect Joviale’s lived-in experiences: broken-hearted letdowns, realizations, and the search for clarity and truth. Sequencing arcs upward and back down as if scaling its namesake. Lyrics detail dynamics between the self and others.
This fall, Joviale will play a headline show at Oslo in Hackney on September 25th. They will also be performing a run of in-stores across the UK this September, and touring with Nourished By Time in the UK/EU in November with a London show at Electric Brixton on November 20th.
Joviale Tour Dates:
Wed. Sept. 17 – Liverpool, UK @ Jacaranda Club (in-store)
Thu. Sept. 18 – Leeds, UK @ Vinyl Whistle (in-store)
Fri. Sept. 19 – Oxford, UK @ Truck (in-store)
Tue. Sept. 23 – Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade (in-store)
Thu. Sept. 25 – London, UK @ Oslo
Thu. Nov. 13 – Berlin, DE @ Säälchen *
Sat. Nov. 15 – Utrecht, NL @ EKKO *
Sun. Nov. 16 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix *
Mon. Nov. 17 – Paris, FR @ Petit Bain *
Wed. Nov. 19 – Bristol, UK @ Lantern Hall *
Thu. Nov. 20 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton *
* = supporting Nourished By Time
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