Lykke Li on Taking Ayahuasca and Her New Album โDark and Dirtyโ. Eyeye, a โdark and uncleanโ audio-visual album inspired by Lars von Trier and Nicolas Winding Refnโs films, is the return of the Swedish singer-songwriter. She tells Gemma Samways about converting her music into a film.
A loversโ dispute; two naked dancers entwined; LAโs nocturnal sprawl; a bloodied woman rescued from a car wreckage Eyeye, the palindromic, noir-inspired audio-visual project of Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li, has burned these images into your mind. Itโs an intoxicating fever dream with no obvious end or start, hewn from hazy, looping vignettes and beautifully accentuated by bruised, Eno-inspired synthscapes plucked from the accompanying LP, shot on 16mm film by A Single Man cinematographer Edu Grau, directed by Theo Lindquist, and starring Li opposite Unorthodoxโs Jeff Wilbusch.
Youโd be right if you thought Liโs latest album, So Sad So Sexy, was a step back in terms of slick R&B and trap-inspired swagger. The 36-year-old frames her artistic evolution as an exorcism, speaking from her home in Los Angeles today. โI had to let my blonde hair grow out and live in two white T-shirts and two pairs of white painterโs pants to get rid of the red, patent leather character of So Sad So Sexy โ simply so I could become a blank canvas again.โ In her place is a โsilent actress/gangster taken from an Ingmar Bergman film, via Michael Mannโs Heat,โ according to her.
Li, a self-professed cinephile, proudly lists Breaking the Waves and Nicolas Winding Refnโs Pusher trilogy as influences for todayโs fatal love story, as well as Last Tango in Paris and Requiem for a Dream. These incredibly dark and dramatic moments serve as a forewarning for the eight-track album that will be released alongside the short films, which will contain some of Liโs most emotionally raw and gratifying material to date.
Li pulled the songwriting process back to its bare bones in her living room in LA with long-time collaborator Bjรถrn Yttling, shunning computerized instruments and including first-take vocals where possible to maintain the emotional essence of the work. Itโs the definitive word on the subject for a musician who has made heartbreak her calling card, and itโs being touted as a โbreakup with the breakup album.โ
Li recounts how Pina Bausch, a love dream obsession, and ayahuasca journeys influenced the creation of Eyeyeโs world.
