Tenci, the moniker of Chicago-based musician Jess Shoman, has announced the details of her debut album, My Heart Is An Open Field, out June 5 on Keeled Scales. Shoman also shares the music video for “Joy” and “Joy 2,” melded into a seven-minute display of intimate sketches of friendship and idle traveling.
“Joy is an emotion that’s always fleeting. You race to find it so you can fill yourself up, but just as quickly it can leave you,” Shoman says. “It’s a name that I’ve given to new love, a cake that sits out too long, the breeze, desire, solitude. The moments where you lose this feeling are just as important as when you have it. There’s comfort in knowing that Joy will always be there in between the moments of self-doubt.”
The music video’s director, Tasnim Boufelfel, drew inspiration from the act of preserving a distinct period in one’s life.
“This video is very personal—like a journal entry, a time capsule, a love letter to no specific moment or memory, but to vanishing ways of life,” Tasnim says.
The lyrics also evoke the sensation of associating a time, place and aura to a specific person or moment in time, with Shoman singing: “I’m gonna find you here and there / In the trees / In the air / In the lines / In my hands.”
Check out the music video for “Joy,” as well as the full tracklist and album art for My Heart Is An Open Field below. Preorder the album here.
My Heart Is An Open Field Album Artwork:
My Heart Is An Open Field Tracklist:
01.Earthquake
02. Hair Sticks
03. Serpent
04. Blue Spring
05. Forgot my Horse’s Name
06. Joy
07. Joy 2
08. No Wings
09. My Heart Is An Open Field