Bedouine Announces Second Album, Shares Video for Bittersweet New Single “Bird”

Folk-rock songstress Azniv Korkejian, aka Bedouine, has announced the release of her second album, Bird Songs of a Killjoy, out everywhere via Spacebomb May 31. She also released the second single from the album, titled simply “Bird,” as well as an accompanying music video directed by Tom Salvaggio—get ready, because in classic Bedouine fashion, this song is about to carve a hole in your chest, evict your heart and nestle snugly in its place.

“‘Bird’ is about loving someone so much that you’re willing to loosen your grip on them,” Bedouine says of the bittersweet ballad. “Bird” tells the story of unrequited love, cradled between the crests of gently swelling brass and lullaby strings. “It was written as a love letter with the intent of delivering it … I had so much to communicate and this was the only way I was able to get it all down.”

Despite some of the song’s lump-in-your-throat lyrics (“If there’s a heaven and if there’s a hell / I’m sure that we’ll wind up there together / And dine there as well”), Bedouine emphasizes that there’s more of an emphasis on the sweet and less on the bitter when it comes to the rest of the album. “It’s a soundtrack to spring blossom, to warm air on skin, to the concept of possibility,” she says.

Bedouine first alerted curious ears with her swooning self-titled debut back in 2017, solidifying herself as a notable contender of the folk genre. Her sound is one that is Aldous Harding meets Joni Mitchell meets early Simon and Garfunkel, but is also one that is uniquely and entrancingly hers.

For all its hype, Bedouine says she hasn’t felt pressured to make her second record any sort of “evolution” from the first. Rather, she has focused on creating a cohesive plot that will serve as a healing process to others in the same way that music has to her. For that reason, the new album will feature a reprise, reoccurring motifs and hidden tracks.

Check out the music video for “Bird” and see Bedouine perform her new album’s first single (“When You’re Gone”) during a Paste session at SXSW below. You can preorder the album here, and see its cover art and tracklist further down below, along with Bedouine’s tour dates.

Bird Songs of a Killjoy Album Art:

Bird Songs of a Killjoy Tracklist:
01. Under the Night
02. Sunshine Sometimes
03. When You’re Gone
04. One More Time
05. Dizzy
06. Bird
07. Bird Gone Wild
08. Hummingbird
09. Matter of the Heart
10. Echo Park
11. Reprise
12. Tall Man

Bedouine Tour Dates:

June
06 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Rough Trade
07-08 – Sonoma, Calif. @ Huichica
13 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Moroccan Lounge

May
31 – Las Vegas, Nev. @ Emergefest

September
07 – London, U.K. @ Queen Elizabeth Hall