German-born NYC-based vocalist, producer and DJ Perel is soon to unleash her new album titled ‘Jesus Was An Alien’ in May. Today, the artist shares exclusive new album artwork, ahead of the full release.
Perel will be playing at the likes of Sónar (b2b Jennifer Cardini), Berghain/Panorama Bar in Berlin and presenting the album live show in our hometown of London, at Moth Club (presented at fabric).
Perel is really a character she has created and she would love to dig into religion, narcissism, and aliens which are the framework for the upcoming conceptual album. The devoted dance floor is a motif as ancient as the club itself. Perel, subverts the stakes of our communal communion with this new album called ‘Jesus Was An Alien’: To who are our arms raised? Who are we looking to for salvation?
“Jesus Was An Alien is a discourse about whether Jesus was an actual alien,” she explains, “but also a social debate about what is and implies religion today.” Her provocative second album – her first on Kompakt – serves as a soundtrack for the listener’s journey through the complexities and paradoxes of modern belief.
Perel has developed ten tracks rich in spirit and allusion, building on the concepts she brought to her debut, the 2018 LP Hermetica on DFA. Her inspirations range from the early 2000s indie dance hitmakers – Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice – through rave collections that precede her ascension to the DJ booth, to more abstract inputs. Living with synesthesia, she says, “I feel emotions and colours piling up inside me, then there’s a triggering sound or event that opens a valve. My tracks are colour streams that tell a story.”
‘Jesus Was An Alien’ is not only multicoloured but also multilingual, flowing in and out of tongues within a single track, occasionally omitting words entirely (the euphoric breakdown of “The Principle of Vibration”). Except for a rare collaboration with Canadian musician Marie Davidson on the title tune, the CD nearly solely uses Perel’s voice.
‘Jesus Was An Alien’ rumbles like a late-night epiphany, a heady discovery awoken in the dark. Perel establishes a tightly regimented electro rhythm, with Davidson’s declarations becoming more furious as the song progresses. “I have stated everything with my synths and melodies,” Perel says of the partnership, but “she gave the song a voice I couldn’t.”
Tomorrow, Perel will drop her new single “Am Kanal,” the closing track on the upcoming album. “Am Kanal” starts as a pensive cloud of a track, finally breaking into a rich textural rain of synths and stabs.
The variation in ‘Jesus Was An Alien’ highlights Perel’s intention with her current piece; she’s experimenting with her way to answers – or perhaps just more questions. After all, she says, “questions are the beginning of something new.”
Photography by Helen Perez
Cover Art by @noraheinisch