Farao – “Marry Me” Video
Norwegian-born, Berlin-based musician Kari Jahnsen, aka Farao, is following up her 2015 debut next month with the new album Pure-O, a deconstruction of sex and relationships set to Soviet disco-inspired synth-pop. We named previous single “The Ghost Ship” one of the best songs of the week when it came out back in May, and now she’s shared another new jam.
“Marry Me,” Pure-O’s opening track, masks its deep skepticism of the institution of marriage behind the romantic sheen of Jahnsen’s vocals and the burbling synthesizers. “Somehow I will communicate some of the overwhelming, undying, overpowering, unconditional, all-encompassing, heart-enriching, mind-expanding, ongoing, never-ending love I have for you,” she intones robotically, her voice dissolving into a vocoder mist by the end. The song is “about the neurotic impulse to want to possess a person through the institution of marriage, ultimately trying to escape yourself by attaching to others,” Jahnsen tells The Fader, where the song premiered. How romantic!
After falling in love with old Soviet disco records, Jahnsen began collecting the boutique, Soviet-era analog synthesizers that she used to write and record the new album. And the Soviet-era aesthetics continue into the music video accompanying “Marry Me,” which finds Jahnsen leading group aerobics exercises in and around empty industrial spaces. “The video is about the importance of aerobics in an industrial world,” Jahnsen explains (sort of) in a press release. Irrum directs; watch below.
Pure-O is out 10/19 via Western Vinyl. Pre-order it here.