Multi-dimensional artist and producer yeule announces their new album ‘softscars’ arriving September 22nd via Ninja Tune. Alongside the album announcement, yeule shares a second offering, “dazies”, with accompanying visuals directed by Zhang & Knight. Fans can pre-save ‘softscars’ here: yeule.lnk.to/softscarsPR and stream the new single “dazies” here: yeule.lnk.to/daziesPR
The single drop also comes with a b-side track “fish in the pool”, a beautiful instrumental track featuring yeule on the piano alongside hushed murmured vocals. “fish in the pool” is a cover of a piece from the Japanese film Hana and Alice by Shunji Iwai, a big inspiration for Ćmiel. ‘softscars’ represents a new direction for yeule as they explore softer textures and disembodied arrangements that feature their ethereal vocals front and center. The project closely examines the anatomy of their long held emotional wounds for their most vulnerable work yet.
By setting their inner musings to cathartic punk riffs and ethereal electronics, yeule crafted ‘softscars’. “I took the metaphor of the scar to represent each song, and each scar remains soft,” yeule says. “Whether you’re healing from emotional trauma or a physical wound, time never heals a scar completely. There’s no more pain, but you can still see the mark afterward. I have a deep feeling that the things my ancestors went through got passed down; there’s some trauma that just sticks. There was always decay and distortion in my life, there’s always been something wrong or ugly. So the scar reminds me that I’m being protected, and I should protect myself.”
Though its subject matter is heavy and arcane, there is a sense of joyful catharsis that emanates throughout the project, which was written and produced by yeule and collaborator Kin Leonn, with additional production from Mura Masa and Chris Greatti (Yves Tumor, Willow Smith). Driving it along is yeule’s shape shifting vocals, sounding more assured than ever in all of its jagged edges and haunting whispers, relaying the imperfect process of healing.
‘softscars’ marks a new era of yeule embracing their musical project as who they truly are as a person. “I was forcing myself to separate myself from my artist persona and trying to tone myself down, because I felt like people wouldn’t like me if I was really that,” yeule explains. By becoming the otherworldly figure that once was of their imagination, they have now bridged the fractured identities that could only exist through different contexts and forms.
The announcement follows their previous single “sulky baby” and their critically-acclaimed 2022 album ‘Glitch Princess’, which received a ‘Best New Music’ stamp from Pitchfork. yeule is a multifaceted artist across music and visual art. The yeule project was fabricated by Ćmiel to act as a portal or rift which allows them to communicate their art to the outside world, while still being protected within their inner shell. yeule was constructed as a manifesto of Ćmiel’s own identity, where they have always had access to multiple avatars and the freedom to change or contort at will — solace through embodying mutable, chameleon-like multiplicities.
