inland island

After a handful of independent releases, Montreal’s introspective baroque-pop artist inland island have announced their debut full-length album will be out on October 18.

The project, lead by singer-songwriter Arthur Rossignol-Tassonyi, will release Zsa Zsa’s Window Opens Slowly, on Egg Paper Factory, which is also the home of experimental art-pop bands such as Un Blonde and Telstar Drugs.

Rossignol-Tassonyi, who identifies as transgender, found a muse in Zsa Zsa, a fictional female character they engage with throughout the record. The singer’s relationship with Zsa Zsa, as well as their own relationship with themself, forms the backbone of the album’s lyrical narrative. The concept album was made over a two month period in which Rossingnol-Tassony worked while locked away in a basement, experimenting with software orchestral arrangements, folk and dream-pop production. The result is a deeply personal album that asks the listener to reflect on their own relationships, proving the power of Rossignol-Tassonyi's vulnerability, and why they are one of the most compelling songwriters to emerge from the Egg Paper Factory label.

"Bran (Germ)" is the latest track to be shared from the record. "'Bran (Germ)' is an ode to self-love and self-care." says Rossignol-Tassonyi. "There are so many ways in which people get cut into certain identities, whether by society or as a result of trying to combat forces weighing down on us, as people. We are all trying to find a sense of self to hold onto but sometimes it's also important to allow for fluidity and growth through change; Bran becomes a symbol of that sacrifice."

You can hear "Bran (Germ)" below. - CBC Music

Pretend that it’s not cold outside and the snow hasn’t become that dirty grey colour. Fast forward to a few months from now: your window’s open and the warm, spring air seeps in. You can hear laughter and bicycle bells and birds. In those dark months, you temporarily forgot about the powers of the sun but now it pours into the window and recharges you. You’re getting ready to go out to meet your crush and you’re super nervous and excited.

That’s what Inland Island’s Zsa Zsa’s Window Opens Slowly sounds like to me. Arthur Rossignol-Tassonyi’s (Inland Island) sunny lo-fi bedroom-pop music is suspended by hope, happiness, and fear; the musical equivalent of butterflies in your stomach.

Each song is gently delivered as though Rossignol-Tassonyi is sitting cross-legged on your bed telling you their stories (which are both light and dark) and offering words of encouragement as you get ready. “You don’t need to be a certain way…you can walk away from anything. You can have another second chance,” Rossignol-Tassonyi sings to you in the courageous “Mistake Your Findings.” Within the muted hues of “The Blue Hour,” they sing to Zsa Zsa (a deity-like figure who’s throughout the album) and share their story of love and comfort, “I feel safe around you,” they repeat.

Elsewhere on Zsa Zsa’s Window Opens Slowly, Rossignol-Tassonyi tells the gender binary and gender roles to fuck off. The story of “Bran (Germ)” is an ode to self-care and “Nocturnal One” is an impossibly bright track that overflows with love and positivity. “There is nothing wrong with you,” Rossignol-Tassonyi repeats over and over again in the latter track. It’s such a beautiful song, I had to cry for a bit after my first listen and then play it again.

By record’s end, you’re ready to go out (don’t forget your key!), take on the world, and impress your crush too.

There is nothing wrong with you.

Top Tracks: “Mistake Your Findings”; “Nocturnal One”

Rating: Proud Hoot (Really Good) + *swoop* - Grayowl Point

After a handful of self-released recordings, Montreal-based singer/songwriter Arthur Rossignol-Tassonyi has prepared their full-length debut as inland island. Zsa Zsa's Window Opens Slowly is an intimate and ambitious concept album of beautiful baroque bedroom pop.

Throughout, Rossignol-Tassonyi, who identifies as transgender, engages with the female character Zsa Zsa — speaking to Zsa Zsa, speaking as Zsa Zsa, sometimes assuming the perspective of an omniscient narrator — offering listeners a more comprehensive portrait of the artist themself.

"Witch," premiering today on Chart Attack above, is "a song about the difficult nature of living in the world as a gender variant person," Rossignol-Tassonyi says, "and the ways in which I cope with that."

"The lyric from which the title is taken, 'I can’t be that witch doctor when I’m so sick,' describes the desire to be there for others, but the inability to do so without being in a good place yourself. For the video, I filmed myself lip-syncing the song in various unfamiliar public spaces as a testament to my own ability to persevere because sometimes simply occupying physical space can be a victory." - Chart Attack

Experimental lo-fi pop project Inland Island are today premiering their newest video for track "Family" via EARMILK.
In a statement, the act, comprised of Arthur Rossignol-Tassonyi, Ellen Belshaw and Jyotsana Singh, explain that the video flourished upon finding a forgotten VHS camera, which contained "footage of a family vacation in the late 90s". They go on to describe how while "the video portrays a suburban nuclear family, the song itself is less direct, with only one verse being about biological family and the others referring to social and/or cultural families of which we are or have been a part of".
Watch the video for "Family" below. - Earmilk

Have you ever fallen asleep with the radio on, and found your dreams dictated by the strange sounds of a late night experimental program? inland island’s second full length, MONOCULTURE…, may inspire the same phenomenon in the casual listener. Not without warning, though — the opening track clearly introduces Arthur Rosignol’s experimental leanings, with captured sounds preceding a dreamy folk tune. What follows are heart-tugging acoustic songs sprinkled with almost equal parts background noise as pulsing melody. The album culminates with the triumphant “Bugs in the Mums Reprise”, sure to shake you from the sentimental stupor you had no doubt succumbed to. - Weird Canada