Kristian Matsson, the indie singer-songwriter who goes under the moniker The Tallest Man on Earth is returning with the recent announcement of his fourth studio album. The LP, appropriately named Dark Bird is Home, will be released on May 12th of this year. The folk revivalist out of Sweden, who has been commonly revered in the same light as Bob Dylan, makes his return in just less than two years, after 2012’s There’s No Leaving Now.
Dark Bird is Home will be Matsson’s third album released by Indiana-based label Dead Oceans. Although Dead Oceans has only been around for eight years, their roster includes artists such as A Place to Bury Strangers, Akron/Family, Bowerbirds, Dirty Projectors, Julianna Barwick, and Phosphorescent.
In addition to announcing his return with a new album, Matsson also released the album cover, which depicts a silhouetted woman facing a home, with dead leaves on the ground around her. The album’s ten-song tracklist is as follows: “Fields of Our Home,” “Darkness of the Dream,” “Singers,” “Slow Dance,” “Little Nowhere Towns,” “Sagres,” “Timothy,” “Beginners,” “Seventeen,” “Dark Bird Is Home.” On top of all this news, Matsson even announced a few festival dates, which will be primarily in Europe. He will be attending the Best Kept Secret Festival in the Netherlands, the Hurricane Festival and Southside Festival in Germany, the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, and finally, the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY.
Along with revealing Dark Bird is Home and a release date, Matsson released a short sixty-seven second album trailer. The trailer features scenic shots of Matsson walking through forests and fields, and rowing a boat around a lake. It also has light guitar strumming over a spoken-word poem from Matsson himself. He reads, “This is not the end; this is fine / I sing that now / Maybe to someone else for comfort / And all this turmoil, / Because the sea can be pretty heavy / Trying out the quality of our little fishing boats / And all this sadness and guilt and daydreaming and hopefulness / Maybe, maybe they come from the same power, / Because this is not the end; this is fine.”