Been a while since we last heard the comforting whispery coos of Swedish songwriter José Gonzales, whom you might recognize from his work with Junip, or his now-ubiquitous cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats”. That is why hearing a new track from Gonzales is sort of like getting a surprise phone call from one your best friends from high school that you haven’t heard from in way too long. He reminds you of a specific emotional landscape and it may be psychically distant from where you are right now, but it provides a warm, welcome embrace.

Encapsulating that idea perfectly in his video for “Every Age”, Gonzales launches a balloon-harnessed camera into the sky, providing a direct line between the concrete place where he currently is and a vast ocean of unexplored space. Just because the camera no longer focuses on the one point where Gonzales stands doesn’t preclude the fact that he remains in the music video the entire time. I like that visual idea of growth, and am ecstatic to have Gonzales back making me wistful once again.

José Gonzales’ new album Vestiges & Claws will drop February 17 via Mute.

Image: Jose Gonzalez