The Tallest Man on Earth‘s Kristian Matsson gets an assist from friends in Sylvan Esso and Bon Iver on Henry St., his first album in four years and first to be recorded with a band. The project, due out April 14 from Anti-, is led by the track “Every Little Heart,” a captivating, Jeroen Dankers-directed video for which finds Matsson wrestling with his literal and proverbial inner child.
Henry St. was produced by Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn and boasts the talents of Bon Iver members CJ Camerieri and Rob Moose, piano/organ player Phil Cook, string ensemble yMusic, guitarist Ryan Gustafson, and drummer TJ Maiani. “They opened everything up, and understood what the songs that I’d written needed: sounds that I couldn’t ever have thought of or created myself,” Matsson says. “We recorded so many of the songs live in the studio, playing, having fun and being really open with each other.”
“Henry St. is the most playful, most me album yet, because it covers so many of the different noises in my head,” Matsson adds. “When you overthink things, you get further away from your original ideas. And God knows I overthink things when I’m by myself.”
The Tallest Man on Earth will tour extensively this spring, beginning March 22-23 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. A month-long European tour begins April 12 in Copenhagen.