With Attention, her second album, that world feels bigger, sharper and more self-assured than ever. Where 2019’s Vanta Black often sat with heartbreak, its follow-up is more restless and seductive, full of lust, ego, movement and the peculiar feeling of being watched while also wanting to be seen. Hoagg has extended that world through a seemingly endless run of videos too, from vampires wandering the Lower East Side to BMWs, ferries and LA traffic.

When we caught up with her, Attention had been out long enough for Hoagg to see which songs were finding their people, sometimes in ways she hadn’t expected. We talked about making videos with zero dollars and a dream, her obsession with visual culture, what makes a perfect music video, working alongside Fever Ray on The Bride!, her definition of a pop star and why whatever comes after Attention probably won’t stay in one place for very long.

Rare DM by David Rauch-Bautista (@drbmemory)

HighClouds: Attention has now been out for three months now. How have you felt about the audience’s reaction to it? Has anything about the audience’s reaction surprised you?

I was thrilled with how many people listened to it when it dropped. I got a lot of unexpected messages praising the album, and I was really touched by that!

It has been surprising to see which songs people have been most excited about and resonate with most.

Looking back after the album’s release, is there a song that listeners connected with differently than you expected?

The video for “Honey” really took off, and the song did too. It seems like people really connected with the serious lyrics and loved the contrast of the (rather unserious) vampire VHS video. I had so much fun reading the comments on YouTube and was pleasantly surprised the song was so loved because it’s very different from most of the album. Also “Butterfly Historian” seems like it’s becoming a favorite for people, which is interesting.

Were there any songs that almost didn’t make the final tracklist for Attention but now feel essential? Is there any song you wish you had put on?

“Significant Other” was the final song mixed. Attention wouldn’t be the same without it! That instrumental rips and it’s one of my favorite tracks on my album. I am happy with the number of tracks in the final, so I feel pretty good, I don’t wish another track had made it. I wish I had more songs already mixed/mastered for upcoming things though!

When people discover Rare DM today, do you hope they begin with Attention, or do you think Vanta Black is a better introduction?

I’d rather them listen to Attention, but I think “send nudes” is a great introduction actually. The song/video are very close to my heart and was the track between the two albums that tied them together.

You have mentioned your desire to merge the audio with the visual. When you begin a new project, do you imagine images first, sounds first, or do they develop together?

Usually song first, but often I have a visual in mind while I am finishing things, or am inspired by things while I am writing that naturally end up in the video. I always knew I wanted to shoot “LA Traffic” in LA, and “send nudes” was alway a bike song.

So far, I have counted 7 music videos from Attention. Do you plan to release one for each track? How do you decide which track gets an album and how do you create the stories for them?

I would love to finish the other 6! I think that’s a great idea. I’ll circle back on that 😉

The songs that become the “singles” usually get videos. Ideally always. That’s best practice for giving a song the best stage possible to find new listeners, and hope that people care. As far as the videos go, when I am blessed with working with Lisa Saeboe and Jake Moore, (“Rolex”, “Compliment”) they have a whole creative direction and shot list in mind from the get-go. With the videos I have dreamed up, I usually have a loose idea of what I want to do, and/or I improvise. For example, I wanted to bike with a go-pro for the “send nudes” video, so I could film it myself during peak covid March 2020. Jordan Fuller who co-directed (and made the fancy steadicam footage possible with Keith Ferreira) let me borrow his. Then naturally I knew I wanted a 1987 BMW 325 for the 325 music video, and found out Keith literally had one, and was down to clown.

For “Honey” I didn’t know what I wanted to do other then run around the LES with a VHS, Calvin Stark and Gianna Dallman – then I found my tailcoat / vampire cape and thought that would be fun. For “Mean Girled” I always knew I wanted to do a video on the ferry, and that one worked out perfectly. Shooting “LA Traffic” was a bit more planned out – my buddy Mallen directed, and we fully locked down locations as well as styling with Shaina Rose, and had a lil plot for it.

I guess it all depends on the video and the size of the team! “The Ring” was another $0 video that was a VHS, Calvin and a dream. Just drove my Dad’s cool Vanagon Carat around, and ran around in the woods in a suit. It is spooky and I had a bunch of fun editing that one too.

Rare DM by David Rauch-Bautista (@drbmemory)

Has there ever been a moment where the visuals changed your understanding of a track?

Everytime I shoot a video for a track I get better at performing that song live and have a new experience with it. I remember intricate details in the song that I maybe forgot about, and I learn the song all over again in a new way, especially when editing the video myself. You spend soooo much time with it, it’s only natural.

Is there a medium you haven’t explored yet that you’d like to incorporate into the Rare DM project in the future?

I would like to design my own stage clothes someday, and have some proper dance routines live.

Are there any particular visual artists or filmmakers who inspire you?

Some visual artists: Rothko, Eadweard Muybridge, Man Ray, Hilma af Klint, René Gruau, Kathleen F. Hoagg (Mom), Douglas Hoagg (Dad).

Some filmmakers: Satoshi Kon, Joon Ho, Guillermo del Toro, Ridley Scott, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki.

As someone who pays close attention to visual composition, are there album covers or music videos that you consider perfect works of art?

Perfect!? That’s a very serious word!! Daft Punk‘s Interstella 5555 is perfect though. The Knife‘s Pass This On is perfect also. I don’t know who else I should say perfect about. I will say I love the music video for “Locket” by Crumb, Metronomy‘s “She Wants” & “Aquarius” (Metronomy has great videos in general), Ladytron‘s “Seventeen” is a classic also. Justice‘s “Stress” is a favorite. Chromeo – “Night by Night” for sure. The 2012 video “Time to Dance” by The Shoes is awesome – FKA Twigs is a featured dancer in it before she dropped “Two Weeks” and Jake Gyllenhaal is a hipster serial killer. It’s fun. They are all inventive and I’m nostalgic about them. What else? There are so many! I am for sure forgetting some favs!!

Regarding album covers… Interpol‘s Turn On The Bright Lights, Weyes Blood‘s Titanic Rising is incredible. Grace Jones‘ Island Life & Nightclubbing . I love the cover of Lady Gaga‘s Mayhem. The Beatles have a bunch of great ones too.

What draws you to the contrast between glamour and darkness rather than embracing one extreme or the other?

Why limit myself! Both are beautiful. They contrast each other, as you said, which is an interesting place to explore. I don’t want to confine myself to a single aesthetic.

What do you think people are searching for when they’re drawn to your music and videos?

Oh I really don’t know. I would expect it’s the sound palette that I am drawn to and that they like the sonic quality of my voice. Alternatively, lyric people (IMO listeners are usually music people or lyric people) can also perhaps find solace in my words because they relate to them. For my videos – I’d like to think they are all either beautiful, exciting, entertaining, or clever… ideally some combo of all of the above. That is what I strive for.

You have said you both want to be a pop star and view yourself as one. What exactly does being a pop star mean to you? Is there something in particular you want to achieve in order to meet that goal?

I believe in manifestation and achieving my dreams. Be the person you want to be, so I am a star. Being a Pop Star is being the truest version of yourself and owning every aspect of your career, and being an icon. It’s different for everyone I think though. David Bowie is a Pop Star. So is Elvis, Edith Piaf, Pink Pantheress, Julian Casablancas, Daft Punk, Doja Cat, Beyoncé, etc etc. I don’t want to delve into every dream ever here, but some dreams of mine: write a legendary song that people want to sing at karaoke forever, be be someones favorite artist, create someone’s favorite album of all time, perform at the major festivals and beyond, act in movies, play all the best late night TV shows, attend the Met Gala, grace the cover of legendary magazines, perform at the Grammy’s and VH1 music video awards…. so many more! I want to be able to live well off of my art forever, doing what I love most.

Rare DM by David Rauch-Bautista (@drbmemory)

Has performing in The Bride! influenced the way you think about performing your own songs on stage or in videos?

The attention to detail / the super tight ship that was run (on such a large scale too!) solidified opinions I already had about what I want to do on stage and in videos.

Meeting Karin (Fever Ray) and having the privilege of seeing them work their magic was a highlight as well. I loved the experience and hope to act again asap. It made me want to wear even more suits also.

Have you ever considered composing an original score for a feature film or video game rather than adapting Rare DM songs?

I already scored a short film – Night of The Tilberi which I loved doing. I absolutely want to write more scores.

In the future, what do you hope people will say about Attention?

That it is “timeless”… I’d like the album to be acclaimed enough that it becomes a classic loved album of the 2020’s, and hope it ages well, like Turn on The Bright Lights did for me. In the short term I hope it gets reviewed on even more publications, warrants some words from Pitchfork (big dream tbqh!), and makes some 2026 years end lists.

Have you thought ahead to your next chapter after Attention? Do you think it will move in a new direction or continue along the same path?

Never stay stagnant! I will exit any confines of genre. TBD

What plans do you have for the future with regard to releasing new music or videos and touring?

I want to perform in South America, Asia, and Austrailla for the first time asap. Definitely tour more in general! I will have new videos and music soon!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks so much for the lovely thoughtful interview HighClouds! For any new listeners / readers, I hope to see you at a show someday and I would so thankful if you’d share my music with a friend. <3 The best way to stay up to date is my Instagram.

Catch Rare DM headlining the first night of Purple City Festival this Friday, September 11 in Edmonton, Canada.

Made once again in close collaboration with her TOPS bandmate David Carriere, the album moves freely between pop, glam rock, country and early-2000s nostalgia, while holding onto the mix of humour and emotional sincerity that made her debut so charming. Across twelve tracks, Cikojevic turns bad nights, old memories, heartbreak and Hollywood mythology into a world populated by chaotic princesses, angels, demons, telepathic lovers, Baywatch Barbies and, of course, the mysterious woman who gave the album its name. She is also celebrating the release with a deliciously decadent new video for “Chaotic Princess,” one of the record’s most gloriously over-the-top moments.

The title of the album comes from a real encounter Cikojevic had after moving from Montreal to Los Angeles in 2024. But as she explains below, Mask Lady and Late Night Girl eventually became about something much broader: the different versions of ourselves we show to the world, the ones we keep hidden, and all the contradictions in between.

A few days before the album’s release, we caught up with Marci to talk about its strange Hollywood origin story, flexing her vocal muscles, cheesy lyrics, cinema, dive bars, dream collaborations and the perfect soundtrack for a chaotic night out.

“The masks give us super powers but also give us something to hide behind.”

HighClouds: Your new album title comes from this woman you used to see around your neighborhood in LA, who you called “Mask Lady,” while she apparently knew you as “Late Night Girl.” Can you tell us a bit more about that encounter?

Marci: After I moved to Hollywood/Franklin Village at the beginning of 2024, I would see this sassy and sexy dressed iconic woman walking around with her mini purse and pin-up girl Halloween mask. I was dying to talk to her.

Finally, one night I was coming home from a party and worked up the courage to stop her and chat. I said, “Omg you’re Mask Lady! I think you’re so iconic, I love your look,” and she responded, “Oh hey, you’re Late Night Girl.”

To my surprise, I was also a character of the neighbourhood to her. I felt honoured.

Marci by Alex Joukouv

The title comes from that very specific encounter, but it also seems to sum up the whole mood of the record. How would you explain the concept of Mask Lady and Late Night Girl and what connects these songs together for you?

To me, these songs touch on duality: the past and the present, who I was and who I want to be, darkness and light.

The cover shows two people, wearing something that is covering their face, driving on. The masks give us superpowers but also give us something to hide behind.

On the cover and on the record, Late Night Girl is in the passenger seat, looking through the window and watching life go by, with the help of Mask Lady weaving through the traffic and getting us where we need to go.

There are so many larger-than-life images across the record: princesses, angels and demons, sci-fi, astrology, Baywatch, Miami Vice, Babylon. Do you naturally process your own experiences by turning them into something more theatrical or cinematic?

I love this question because it combines all the most epic words on the album haha.

I love drama and grandeur in art and storytelling. I think I enjoy making things a little more fantastical. I don’t think I process my experiences like that, but I probably make them sound way cooler than they are later lol.

Since you mention that love of drama and grandeur, who are some of your favourite directors?

I’m going to pick some new ones I’m excited about: Matt Johnson, Julia Ducournau, John Early, Joachim Trier, Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers and Denis Villeneuve.

Some all-time favs: Sofia Coppola, Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan, Kubrick, The Wachowskis because The Matrix is literally the best. Steven Spielberg is so nostalgic for me. Wong Kar Wai was a first love.

What are your favourite lyrics on the album, and what makes them special to you?

I love the lyrics of “Lady with the Mask” because it felt like I was really there when I wrote them. Like I could feel the fear and sweat and danger and had imagined a whole scene.

But I also really love the lyrics of “Chaotic Princess” because they were so funny to write and immerse myself in, bratty style.

Marci by Allison Goldfarb

“She’s a little bit country, she’s a little bit rock and roll.”

You’ve said you wanted to try things on this album that you didn’t get to explore on Marci, what did you consciously want to push further this time around?

I wanted to try using my voice differently and push myself vocally. I also wanted to add more distorted guitars and write in other genres because she’s a little bit country, she’s a little bit rock and roll.

Which song on Mask Lady and Late Night Girl was the most challenging to make?

The ones that didn’t make the album 😂 Maybe they will make the next one 😉

You haven’t had a duet or featured guest on a Marci song yet. If you could pick anyone for a dream collaboration, who would it be?

I think it would be really cool to make a song with Nourished by Time.

Okay, also Spielberg was mentioned earlier and now I have so many John Williams themes running through my head. Wouldn’t that be the coolest, to make something huge and epic with John Williams?! Haha woooah.

When you’re making music, do you trust spontaneity or perfection more?

A balance of both!!

“Really cheesy lyrics are the best bad decision.”

What is your favourite bad decision in a pop song?

Literally when I say “where my heart used to be” in my own song “Butterfly Sticker”… It took me a minute to move forward with that line 😂.

So I guess really cheesy lyrics are the best bad decision.

When you and David are making a Marci song, how often are you actually talking about references? Are you saying “this should feel like Janet Jackson” or “this needs to sound like 2002,” or is that musical vocabulary more instinctive between you by now?

We do reference stuff, but we pick production aspects of certain songs that we like, and not the whole aesthetic. We like to mix different styles.

You’re both members of TOPS and you also work very closely with David on the Marci records. When you’re writing together, how do you know whether an idea belongs to TOPS or to Marci?

It’s usually pretty straightforward. If we’re working on Marci stuff, it’s Marci time, and if we’re jamming TOPS stuff, it’s with TOPS.

How do you manage those different creative processes in practice? Do you consciously switch into “Marci mode” when you start working on your solo music, or is the separation between the projects more fluid than that?

Definitely pretty fluid. I just love playing music and being creative as much as possible.

The main switch, I suppose, is when it’s Marci time I get to sing and work on flexing those muscles. So fun.

Marci by Justin Aranha

You moved from Montreal to Los Angeles between the two Marci albums. What feels most different about living and making music in those two cities? Do you think LA has changed the way you write or the kind of music you want to make?

LA is a workhorse in the way that there are constantly people working on music, and it rubs off on you in a good and bad way. It’s motivating but can make you feel overwhelmed.

Montreal feels a little more relaxed, but if you just chill out, LA can also be relaxed. I just got my own little studio space finally, so I’m chillin.

What does your ideal night out actually look like? Are you more into house parties, hanging out at a bar, dancing in a club, or something completely different?

Honestly, wherever the night takes me. But I do love a dive bar.

If you had to make the ultimate Marci party playlist, what are the first five songs going on it and why? And what would be the one song for the ride home at the end of the night?

Okay, we’re going to go in order of the night and you can make your own interpretations based on the song and title:

“Chaotic Princess” – Marci
“Lets Fucking Go Tonight” – Fireball Kid
“Lose Control” – Missy Elliott ft. Ciara
“It Feels So Good” – Sonique
“Memories” – David Guetta ft. Kid Cudi

And we’re saying goodbye with “Say Hello” by April Wine… cuz jk we coming back.

What are you obsessed with at the moment, outside of music?

Croatian cooking and my dog Pepa, always.

With Mask Lady and Late Night Girl, Marci takes everything that made her debut so easy to love and lets it get a little weirder. The synth-pop sparkle remains, but distorted guitars, pedal steel and glam-rock excess now sit comfortably alongside it, while songs like “Butterfly Sticker,” “Chaotic Princess,” “99 Dimensional” and “Lady with the Mask” reveal just how much room there is inside her pop universe.

More importantly, the album never forces its contradictions to resolve. Late Night Girl can keep the party going while Mask Lady quietly takes the wheel. A lyric can be ridiculously cheesy and completely sincere. A chaotic night can become funny in retrospect and still leave a bruise. Somewhere between those extremes, Marci has made a second record that feels unmistakably hers.

Mask Lady and Late Night Girl is out now.

For those who never came across it, Nina is a free and independent music platform launched in 2021 as an alternative to the increasingly standardised world of music streaming. While most platforms compete on scale, convenience and algorithmic efficiency, Nina focused on something else entirely: direct support for artists, niche music communities, and genuine and human discovery.

As someone who has been slowly drifting away from Spotify over the past one or two years, Nina became one of my favourite ways to find new music. Not just through the platform itself, but through its editorial work and the scenes it highlighted.

What made Nina special wasn’t simply its business model. Fans could buy music directly from artists and labels, while creators kept all the revenue generated through sales. More importantly, it gave space to underground scenes and smaller communities that rarely fit into the logic of mainstream streaming. Opposing to the other streaming services, it felt like it was built around participation.

Unfortunately, passion alone isn’t always enough to survive. In a music economy that rewards scale above almost everything else, Nina struggled to attract the kind of rapid growth required to sustain itself.

Its closure made me think more directly about my own relationship with Spotify: the only thing keeping me subscribed to Spotify at this point is sentimental attachment. I’ve been using Spotify since I was sixteen, thousand of saved songs, playlist attached to specific years of my life, old discoveries, forgotten obsessions… It has effectively become an archive of my musical history.

Recently I realised that I barely use it the way I once did, so I considered downgrading my relationship with it: keeping the account as a reference library while stopping the monthly payments.

Spotify arrived at exactly the right historical moment. In the late 2000s it presented itself as the solution to music piracy: a legal, frictionless way to access an almost unlimited catalogue of music. For listeners, it felt revolutionary: instead of downloading and organising music yourself, an entire library was made available instantly for a modest subscription fee.

The problem is that the incentives built into the platform have always favoured scale. Spotify distributes royalties through a pro-rata model, where artists are paid according to the share of total streams they generate across the platform. In practice, this means that the bigger artists receive the largest portion of the money. More streams attract more visibility, more visibility generates more streams.

Recent policy changes have only reinforced that dynamic. Tracks that fail to reach minimum streaming thresholds effectively stop generating royalty payments, making it even harder for smaller artists to earn meaningful income for the platform.

But my growing distance from Spotify isn’t only about economics.

It’s also about predictability.

Sometimes it’s great having something chosen for you. If you’re out for a run, at the gym, cooking dinner or tidying your room, you don’t necessarily want to spend 20 minutes digging through Bandcamp pages or music blogs. Sometimes you just want music to be there, and recommendation algorithms are pretty good at that.

The problem is when convenience becomes your main way of listening.

I’m someone who tends to hyperfixate on tracks and artists for weeks, sometimes months. There’s comfort in that, repetition is part of listening behaviour. But once the fixation ends, I often realise I’ve been moving within the same small circle of sounds, so what’s the price of that comfort?

Comfort can become a trap: the more efficiently a platform learns your preferences, the less likely it is to challenge them, so discovery becomes optimisation and your taste is not expanded.

What is important to notice here, is also that Spotify and Nina emerged from fundamentally different impulses. Spotify’s founders approached music as a problem to solve through technology: unlimited access, frictionless consumption and scalable distribution. Nina came from people embedded within experimental and DIY music communities: they weren’t trying to optimise listening, they were trying to create different conditions for it, and that difference matters.

Over time, Spotify increasingly focused on what it calls “lean-back listening”: music that accompanies activities, playlists organised around moods – productivity and ambience became central to the platform’s identity. The consequence extend beyond listening habits. Artists adapt to the system that rewards them. If playlists favour unobtrusive music that blends seamlessly into cafes, offices, and study sessions, then there is a financial incentive to make music that does exactly that.

This raises a crucial question: is passive consumption becoming the ideal listener experience?

Streaming now dominates the music industry. In the UK, it accounts for the overwhelming majority of recorded music revenue, with Spotify remaining the market leader. Convenience has won. Most listeners understandably choose the platform that gives them immediate access to everything.

But convenience isn’t the same thing as discovery.

If anything, the decline of platforms like Nina makes discovery feel more important. We spend a lot of time worrying about AI replacing human labour, but we don’t spend enough time talking about what recommendation systems do to human taste.

Algorithms are useful. They have introduced me to artists I might never have encountered otherwise, rejecting them entirely would be pointless.

The issue is what happens when recommendation becomes the primary way we encounter culture.

When every suggestion is based on previous behaviour, the unfamiliar disappears and taste becomes increasingly self-reinforcing. You stop encountering things that seem strange or outside your interests, which are the ones that often reshape your perspective.

At some point is worth asking uncomfortable questions. Do I genuinely love this or have I simply been exposed to it often enough that it now feels pleasing?

Perhaps this is one reason why people increasingly seem exhausted by algorithmic feeds. Across digital culture there are signs of fatigue with systems that continuously predict what we want before we’ve had the chance to decide ourselves.

Nina’s closure doesn’t make me optimistic. If anything, it demonstrates how difficult is for alternatives to survive. Still, I don’t think the answer is nostalgia.

The answer is actively protecting spaces where discovery can happen. Go to small gigs, follow independent labels, read music magazines and blogs, seek out scenes that exist outside the centre of attention. Let recommendations come from friends, conversations and chance encounters instead of using exclusively platforms.

Most importantly, leave room for uncertainty. Good taste isn’t something an algorithm can perfectly optimise, it’s something that develops through curiosity, experimentation, and surprises.

That’s what made Nina valuable, and that’s what I hope it doesn’t disappear with it.

Though separated by nearly 3,000 kilometers (Jeff Louis is based in Austin and Leanne Macomber in Philadelphia), their creative connection remains undeniable. Across that distance, the pair maintain their gauzy synth textures, drum machine pulse, and intimate emotional tone.

The duo formed in 2007 when Macomber (also of Young Ejecta and Wet Eggs) was seeking a new direction for her lyrics and found a collaborator in Louis, whose arrangements help define their sound.

After a 14-year hiatus, Fight Bite returned with their new release, Party!, on 21 April 2026. During that time, Macomber relocated and worked with her other projects, but the duo continued exchanging music remotely.

“We’re not so much a band about evolution as we are about continuing to see how we connect and where we meet. Like a very innate childhood connection, it just sort of lives forever and grows.” – Leanne Macomber

Macomber has described the break as necessary, saying, “we really wanted to distill the best of both of our efforts.” The album was built through email exchanges. Sometimes Louis would send musical sketches for Macomber to add lyrics to, and other times she sent full demos for him to reshape. She calls it a “double blind process,” resulting in a record that balances dreamlike nostalgia with fresh, subtle experimentation.

The stand out track on the album is “Party (I Have Never),” which begins with a pulsing beat and the brilliant, haunting line “I have never been naked in front of a man before.” Another beautiful track is “Killer Whale,” which sounds like an undiscovered Julee Cruise track and features a spoken word section that echoes back to 60s girl groups like The Shangri-Las.

On Party!,the influence of Mazzy Star and This Mortal Coil are undeniable, but their influences are much broader. Macomber draws inspiration from cinema, which she works in, saying, “I’m always inspired by how the mind collages experiences and film is sort of the pinnacle expression of that.”

Louis highlights David Lynch’s film soundtracks as a key influence and adds that, despite Austin’s vibrant music scene, Macomber’s songwriting remains his biggest inspiration. Looking ahead, Macomber hopes to tour in the autumn, while Louis notes they have enough material for two albums.

Today, we are happy to debut his crepuscular new single “sun7”, before it officially goes live tomorrow. Led once again by e.v.a, a fictional avatar he introduced on previous releases, the track begins with scattered vocal chops and glowing synths, then slowly blooms into something brighter and more physical. There is a strong Y2K feeling in the way the voices flicker and bend, but “sun7” also carries house warmth, lo fi vibes, and a subtle touch of French House nostalgia. As Charly puts it, the track was imagined as a summer soundtrack: “warm, nostalgic and melancholic, like the end of a day at the beach or the last track of a rave at sunrise.” Listen and support below.

For those who follow left-of-centre pop, electronic music and adventurous club sounds, C2C Festival has long been one of the most exciting festivals in Europe. We went last year, and the experience confirmed what the line-up already suggested: this is a festival with a real point of view. It knows how to bring together big names, cult favourites and more experimental artists without making the programme feel random.

Among the new additions, The Avalanches are one of the biggest surprises. The Australian group, known for their sample-heavy, emotional collages, will play the opening night at OGR Torino. Their appearance comes as they are teasing their next chapter, following their 2020 album We Will Always Love You. And their recent single “Together,” featuring Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza, and Prentiss, got us particularly excited.

Shygirl is another major addition. The London artist, who has become one of the most exciting voices in electronic pop, mixing club music, grime, R&B, hip hop and hyperpop, will perform in Italy for the very first time.

The announcement also brings Smerz back to the festival. Loyal readers will know that we have been following the Norwegian duo since “Because” in 2016. Their album Big City Life was one of last year’s most significant records, and they were also one of our highlights of the festival last year. In 2026, the duo will perform at Teatro Carignano for a special matinée. This is also one of the key pieces of news from the announcement: the historic Turin venue returns to the programme for the first time in eleven years.

Also joining the bill are Grouper, the much-loved project of Liz Harris, whose intimate ambient folk should make for one of the most beautiful moments of the closing day; ML Buch, one of the most interesting names from the new CPH scene; and Elias Rønnenfelt, frontman of Iceage, who arrives after a very prolific period including his solo album Speak Daggers and lucre, a collaborative project with Dean Blunt that was one of favourite releases of 2025.

C2C Festival 2026 will run from Thursday 29 October to Sunday 1 November. Tickets via DICE.

The origins of that image can be traced back to a photograph Björk encountered in Visionaries magazine. Shot by Nick Knight and art-directed by Alexander McQueen, it featured model Devon Aoki in a surreal, cold-toned composition that blended cultural references and fashion into something almost mythological. The image resonated deeply with Björk, who was already envisioning Homogenic as an exploration of identity, technology, and emotional intensity. She reached out to Knight and McQueen to collaborate on the album cover, asking them to help translate these ideas into a single, powerful visual.

At the heart of the concept was a character, a “warrior of love”. Björk imagined someone placed in such an extreme, impossible situation that transformation became necessary: not into a fighter armed with weapons, but into a figure who resists through emotional strength.

McQueen, working with stylist Katy England, constructed this character through clothing and symbolism. The kimono was handmade in his London studio from blue and white damask satin, woven with prunus blossom and lined in vivid scarlet. It referenced Japanese aesthetics, reflecting McQueen’s long-standing fascination with the culture, but like much of his work, it avoided simple imitation in favour of hybridisation.

That hybridity extended across the entire look. Björk‘s appearance combined multiple cultural influences: a coiled neckpiece by jeweller Shaun Leane inspired by the brass rings worn by Kayan Lanai women of Myanmar; elaborate hair shaped into sculptural forms reminiscent of Native American traditions; and highly stylised makeup and manicure. Together, these elements formed a kind of “global citizen” figure, something Björk herself identified with. As she described it, she often felt Icelandic abroad and cosmopolitan at home, constantly shifting between identities.

At the same moment as the Homogenic shoot, Alexander McQueen was developing his Elect Dissect haute couture collection for Givenchy (Autumn/Winter 1997-98). Like the album cover, the collection fused a wide range of global influences, drawing from tribal, ethnic, and historical references to construct a deliberately hybrid aesthetic. In the Paris show, the dramatic Masaai-inspired neckpiece created by Shaun Leane, first designed for Björk’s cover, reappeared in a more exaggerated, towering form. Elsewhere, the collection explored a strong vein of Japonisme, with kimono silhouettes, intricate oriental embroidery, and geisha-like hair styling echoing the visual language of the Homogenic image.

The shoot itself has become almost as legendary as the final image. according to Nick Knight, the cover photograph was the very first shot taken that day. McQueen saw the Polaroid, immediately recognised its strength, and left the studio within minutes, convinced they already had what they needed. Björk and Knight, however, continued shooting for several hours, producing hundreds of images – none of which matched the clarity of that first frame. No outtakes from the session have ever been released, reinforcing the almost mythic status of that singular image.

For Björk, embodying the character was physically demanding. She wore heavy sculptural hair, special contact lenses, restrictive clothing taped into place, and towering clogs that made movement difficult. The constraint was intentional, because the image needed to communicate a sense of pressure and containment, mirroring both the emotional tone of the album and her own experiences at the time.

Björk described the album as a return “home”, a deeper connection to Icelandic identity filtered through electronic experimentation. She immersed herself in London’s underground music scene while also drawing on traditional Icelandic vocal techniques, blending the organic with the synthetic. Thematically, the album explores the friction between nature and technology, intimacy and distance, fragility and resilience.

All of these ideas converge in the cover image, which is a visual manifesto, a figure suspended between cultures.

The legacy of the image extends beyond the album itself. The kimono worn by Björk was later sold at auction in 2016, while the cover continues to be cited as one of the most influential collaborations between fashion, photography, and music. More importantly, it crystallised Björk’s approach to artistry: not separating sound, image and identity, but weaving them into a single, unified expression.

True to the HighClouds spirit, we’ve once again tried to shine a light on overlooked releases and new or under-the-radar artists alongside some more familiar names. And yes… for the second year the same artist is topping our Best Songs list. At this point, it’s safe to say we’re obsessed. All of the tracks featured here (and many others) are also gathered in our Spotify playlist, that you can find below.

Thank you for reading, listening, and sharing music with us throughout 2025. We wish you a beautiful end of the year, and we’ll be back very soon in 2026 to share even more amazing music with you.

60 Avalon – Harder To Reach Than God
59 Farao – Waiting for You
58 Reggie Devoyage – Down Town
57 Nuovo Testamento – Picture Perfect
56 Yumi Zouma – Drag
55 Boyhood – A Grand Time
54 Danny L Harle; Caroline Polachek – Azimuth
53 Fernette – Lowlands
52 Jouska – Season of Dread
51 Charli xcx – Chains of Love

50 Pearly Drops – End Credits
49 Marina Zispin – Penthouse Samba
48 Boyish – Jumbos
47 Sword II – Sugarcane
46 TOPS – Chlorine
45 Robyn – Dopamine
44 The Deep – KPOP B!TCH
43 Juliana Madrid – Jamie
42 Men I Trust – Come Back Down
41 R. Missing – Telepolartears

40 Jenny Hval – The artist is absent – 89 seconds rewrite
39 Fontaines D.C. – Before You I Just Forget
38 hemlocke springs – the beginning of the end
37 Sea Lemon – Stay
36 Georgie & Joe – Pacemaker
35 Fine – I could
34 Jessy Lanza – Slapped By My Life
33 Arny Margret – Day Old Thoughts
32 Lipsticism – Erased
31 Clara Kimera; notinbed – angel candles

30 Neggy Gemmy – Mysterious Girl
29 Joanne Robertson; Oliver Coates – Always Were
28 Hannah Jadagu – My Love
27 HTRK – Swimming Pool
26 Night Tapes – television
25 Raisa K – Affectionately
24 helen island – hot zone, regular day
23 Dean Blunt; Elias Rønnenfelt – 1
22 Cole Pulice – After the Rain
21 crushed – starburn

20 AMORE – Delirio
19 Oneohtrix Point Never – Rodl Glide
18 Erika de Casier – Delusional
17 Judeline – chica de cristal
16 Dijon – Yamaha
15 Rochelle Jordan – Ladida
14 PinkPantheress – Illegal
13 Maria Somerville – Garden
12 Ethel Cain – Fuck Me Eyes
11 Sophia Stel – Everyone Falls Asleep In Their Own Time

10 Jim Legxacy – ’06 wayne rooney
9 Magdalena Bay – Human Happens
8 snuggle – Woman Lake
7 Addison Rae – Headphones On
6 After – 300 dreams
5 FKA twigs – Striptease
4 james K – Play
3 Nourished by Time – Max Potential
2 Smerz – You got time and I got money
1 Oklou – blade bird