Philadelphia artist Nina Ryser (of @ and Palberta) has a new solo album on the way. Water Giants is due out on September 20 via Dear Life Records, and Ryser says it’s the “first solo album I didn’t record alone in my house.” She worked on it with engineer Lucas Knapp, and you can see the cover art (featuring collaged and formatted photos by Eve Alpert) and tracklist below.
The album includes “Things I Claim” from earlier this summer, and Ryser has shared another new single, the experimental “Underestimate,” which is accompanied by a video directed by Palberta’s Ani Ivry-Block. “For the video, I wanted to evoke the song’s cyclical and repetitive nature, and the urgency and chaos of the vocals,” Ryser says. “I had a vision immediately of fast, frantic movement in a frumpy suit that’s somewhat immobilizing. Ani suggested we shoot in the financial district, which was the perfect environment for the song — a maze of windy small streets stacked with grave towering buildings, an aggressive claustrophobic environment. I wanted to bring in a feeling of uncanniness, with the wet hair and goth makeup, running sometimes urgently and sometimes aimlessly, maybe to a destination, we’ll never know. But it just keeps going like a cyclical nightmare. The end of the video brings some much needed relief, taking us out of the nightmare with the string trio outro.” Watch it below.
Ryser is also about to begin a European tour; see all dates below.
NINA RYSER – WATER GIANTS TRACKLIST
1. Swirl
2. Cuz You
3. Things I Claim
4. Why Do I Ask
5. Piggy Boys
6. Underestimate
7. Mercury Soda
8. Lessen Your Load
9. Dust Girls
10. Beauty in Grime
11. You Are What You Eat
12. Remassog Maerd
NINA RYSER: 2024 TOUR DATES
8/30 – Eupen, Belgium @ Meakusma Festival
8/31 – Liège, Belgium @ Reflektor Café
9/2 – Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Extrapool
9/3 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Studio Patrick
9/4 – Rotterdam, Netherlands @ Varia (Extratonal Infrastructure Series)
9/5 – Brussels, Belgium @ Super Fourchette
9/6 – Lille, France @ The Neighbor’s Shovel
9/7 – Paris, France @ Mécanique Ondulatoire