You may know Cat Martino for her collaborations with Sufjan Stevens between his Age of Adz era and his equally out-there work with Son Lux and Serengeti as Sisyphus, yet for the past decade she’s also been the creative force behind Stranger Cat—a shape-shifting art-pop moniker with only 2015’s In the Wilderness to its name. Next month she’ll be releasing her sophomore album Slow Jam Love Letters to My Body in Pieces, with the title alone setting expectations for the slowly unfolding yet undeniably danceable ballads carried within.
With the release date still over two weeks out, Cat is returning with a new single from the project today called “Doin It Right,” which gradually stacks layers of vocals and other near-ambient pop sounds atop each other until the recording’s stark conclusion. Meanwhile, the single’s video keeps the camera rolling for another couple minutes as Cat-the-performer completes the track’s inspired interpretive dance. “Creating and performing this video in its entirety says a big piece of what I want to say as an artist at this time, and reveals a bit more of who Stranger Cat is—a process I’ll forever be exploring,” she shares. “The video concluding in silence says more in movement than I could ever say in sound and words, like my own version of a Charlie Chaplin film, with the photography work of Cindy Sherman also as an inspiration.
“It is my hope that engagers will feel permission to be fully free in expression, even if just for a moment, and wave your freak flag to celebrate whoever you are fully,” she adds. Check it out below, and pre-order Slow Jam Love Letters—which is out November 15—here.
