Kornél Kovács will release Hotel Koko, his third album, in October.
Hotel Koko follows to the release of Stockholm Marathon, also released on Studio Barnhus.
We’re told to expect another expansive record that underlines the Swedish producer’s “boundless attitude” to genre, from the super-speed jungle influence of “Goofy” with Costa Rican singer-songwriter MishCatt on vocals, to the experimental frenzy of “Szakad.”
Whereas Kovács’ previous records are “deeply introspective,” he says, with Hotel Koko he has shifted the focus away from himself and created some of his most accessible and most experimental compositions to date, further blurring the line between pop and dance music. Each individual track on the record represents a door within the fictional Hotel Koko and the myriad things that could happen behind them.
“I wanted this album to centre around a fictional, dreamlike place,” Kovács says. “I’ve often had friends staying at my flat in Stockholm while I’ve been away touring or recording. At one point I wrote down some basic information and silly ‘house rules’ on a paper, making it look like stationery for a ‘Hotel Koko.’ I found that piece of paper while cleaning my flat a while back, that’s when the idea and the album title fell into place. I think all hotels, from the shabbiest to the most luxurious, have a sense of fantasy and mystique about them, they’re these ‘liminal spaces’ if you will, where anything could happen behind the locked hotel room doors.”
Kovács has once again teamed up with his studio engineer Matt Karmil, but he’s also enlisted jazz musician Niclas Skagstedt across some of the tracks. Guest collaborators also include Aluna and fellow Studio Barnhus affiliate Kamohelo.
To celebrate the announcement, Kovács has shared the album’s bittersweet pop track “Follow You,” a collaboration with Aluna.
Tracklisting
01. Molly
02. Castles feat. Kamohelo
03. Szakad
04. Szörp
05. Usch
06. Goofy feat. MishCatt
07. Vår Dub
08. Follow You (with Aluna)
09. Paris Piano
Hotel Koko LP is scheduled for October 14 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Follow You” with Aluna in full below and pre-order here.
