Jan 12, 2023
By Caleb Campbell
Photography by Daniel Almås
Next week, Norwegian folk pop act Tuvaband is set to return with her forthcoming fourth full-length record, New Orders, out January 20th. Singer/songwriter Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser first debuted as Tuvaband with her 2018 record, Soft Drop, followed by 2019’s I Entered The Void and her most recent effort, 2021’s Growing Pains & Pleasures, all of which sketched the contours of her ambitious art pop songwriting.
Pulling together elegant sonic textures, crystalline folk melodies, and haunting vocal performances, Tuvaband has crafted a sound that thrives off of lush symphonic arrangements and alluring vulnerability. Her latest record is possibly the most complete portrait of her artistry, with Tuva taking her most active creative role yet, playing nearly all the instruments as well as recording, producing, and mixing the album. Tuvaband shared a series of new singles last year, and today, ahead of the full album release she’s back with her final single, “By The Time You Hear This,” premiering with Under the Radar.
“By The Time You Hear This” is a glassy and elliptical effort, one that steadily builds with each rotation until it ascends to a fervent climax. It begins stark and sparse, guided only by Tuva’s haunting vocals and some glassy piano melodies, but it steadily transforms into a sweeping symphony of synths, strings, and intricate rhythms. Meanwhile, the lyrics play with repetition, looping over and over as if they were mantras or incantations until a new one is introduced.
That repetition is central to the track’s otherworldly nature. As Tuva explains, “Since the pandemic, the concept of time has confused me a lot. It has felt more abstract than ever. The past has felt both far away and very close at the same time. While I was writing this song, other thoughts about time, in conjunction with various themes, just kept on coming to my mind.”
She continues, saying, “When I created this song, I was inspired by the song ‘My Suitor’ by Berntholer. When I hear it now, it doesn’t really sound any similar. I remember that I thought that I was pushing it a little bit when it came to the repeating lines and synth melody. But to me the words and the melody felt powerful in the sense of what I wanted to express. I didn’t want to go more in depth or be more specific, as these words were covering various ideas and thoughts at that moment, and I wanted the lyrics to feel universal both for me later and for the listeners. And to make up for the repeating lines and synth melody, I focused on building the song step by step with other elements, slowly, but steadily. Actually, I must admit that there was even one more round of the same lines and melody in the start, but I took them away.”
Check out the song below, out everywhere tomorrow. Tuvaband’s new LP, New Orders is out January 20th.