THE PORTABLE INFINITE: ZSELA RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM VIA MEXICAN SUMMER

6/14/2024

ZSELA RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM VIA MEXICAN SUMMER

ZSELA RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM

BIG FOR YOU OUT NOW ON MEXICAN SUMMER; LISTEN HERE

US TOUR DATES ON SALE NOW

After years of building into one of the most highly anticipated debut releases, Zsela (ZHAY-la) has released her first album, Big For You, on Mexican Summer. Big For You is a timeless statement that flows between grandiosity and intimacy to build a sonic landscape overflowing with introspection. A work of cavernous depth produced in tandem with Daniel Aged (Frank Ocean, Kelela) and Gabe Wax (The War On Drugs, Soccer Mommy), the album also contains cameos from several members of Zsela’s extended family of collaborators, including Marc Ribot, Nick Hakim, Casey MQ and Jasper Marsalis (Slauson Malone 1). Listen HERE. The album was preceded by videos for “Fire Excape,” “Lily of the Nile” and the most recent “Not Your Angel.”

This new body of work is a quantum leap for an artist who has taken giant strides as a performer in the years since her 2020 inaugural release, Ache of Victory, which quickly caught the attention of The New York Times, Pitchfork, Vogue, and many more. Dripping with rich textural treatments and amorphous, heart-on-the-sleeve arrangements, the dynamics and diversity that define Big For You prove Zsela is painting with a wider palette than ever before.

Reflecting on the making of the album’s ten songs, Zsela explains that the initial sketches went through countless versions before evolving to their final forms. “It was important for me to stay open in this process, finding the truth of what the songs want to be,” says Zsela. “That meant breaking them down and building them back up again and again, not being precious and trying to listen.” By stripping back to the truth of these songs, Zsela arrived at sonic settings that are striking in their contrast, using negative space to conjure a grander sense of scale; a theme also found in the album’s title with Zsela noting, “At the heart, it touches on the causal versus intentional dance we play between being ‘full of you’ and ‘full for you’ — the complexity and magnitude of the space we take and fill up for love.”

Zsela, who has shared stages with the likes Cat Power, Caroline Polachek, and Angel Olsen, and made appearances at the likes of Carnegie Hall and MoMA PS1 in New York and the Natural History Museums in both New York and Los Angeles, has a handful of upcoming U.S dates in support of the album. Starting in Seattle on August 16th, Zsela will make stops in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. She’ll also perform at Pitchfork London and Le Guess Who? Festivals later this year (full dates below).