The Tallest Man on Earth shares "In the Silver Wire Up the Hill" ahead of Friday's album release
US TOUR BEGINS OCTOBER 15
" 'Just Beyond Endless Mountain' feels loving, pastural and raw, with long fiddle solos, flute that dances around the lyrics and scores of other orchestral instruments, most that Matsson plays himself ... Though born out of disarray and deep grief, the songs carry a contentment that can only come by finding a way to fuse who we were with who we are and making peace with the past." - Rolling Stone
Power line corridors are a familiar feature of the Swedish landscape. Cutting through forests and hillsides, their cables often catch the sun like strands of silver. These glinting fibers inspired “In The Silver Wire Up The Hill”, the song out today from ‘Just Beyond Endless Mountain’, the new album out this Friday by Swedish singer-songwriter The Tallest Man On Earth aka Kristian Matsson. Take a listen below as a restless clarinet winds its way through the song, giving it both movement and light.
Listen + Watch “In The Silver Wire Up The Hill”: https://youtu.be/BOajY7BGLkg?si=-tOQOQ4PYJ6FJ3Jv
Swedish folk music takes many forms. There's the polished, flower crown wearing, crowd-pleasing version that has turned Matsson off since his early teen years, when the animated antics of Iggy Pop felt much more intriguing. And then there are the old fiddlers whose music survives on weathered field recordings, strangely reminiscent of the old American songs preserved in the Smithsonian archives. That's where you'll find the polskas, with their lopsided triple meter and melodies that drift effortlessly between major and minor.
"Those field recordings have made me less afraid,” Matsson said. “People play too fast, out of tune, or in these really strange ways. But sometimes they're out of tune in exactly the right way. They've made me brave enough to be more dynamic — to whisper, to scream, to let things be ugly.”
Matsson is still singing about what he sees around him—the rivers, the forests, the birds, and the doubt that still catches up with him from time to time. However, the influence of Swedish folk music on ‘Just Beyond Endless Mountain’ is unmistakable—at least if you know what to listen for. He's bought more fiddles. And old reel-to-reel tape machines. The growing collection of instruments — and the aging technology itself — has become part of his creative process. Whenever he loses focus, he can spend an afternoon repairing a tape machine, and by the time it's working again, the inspiration has usually returned. Recording at home again has been a liberation.
Twenty wild years have passed since he released his first EP. Looking back, the different chapters of Matsson's career fell into place: extensive tours, festival stages, steadily growing audiences, increasingly ambitious recordings, the move to America and back, and the constant pendulum swing between performing alone and wanting a full band beside him, both onstage and in the studio.
"More than anything, it's the melodies that have changed,” Matsson said. “A lot of them come from fiddle phrases. They're so beautiful. This album wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't been listening to Swedish folk music. It re-wired something inside me."
This fall Matsson will begin a cross-country US tour on October 15 in Saxapahaw, North Carolina, followed by a month long 2027 European tour that begins February 3. All upcoming dates are listed below.
TOUR DATES
Oct 15 – Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom
Oct 16 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
Oct 17 – Washington DC @ Lincoln Theatre
Oct 18 – Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre
Oct 20 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Oct 21 – Boston, MA @ Royale
Oct 23 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
Oct 24 – Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark
Oct 25 – Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark
Oct 27 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
Oct 28 – Maquoketa, IA @ Codfish Hollow Barnstormers
Oct 29 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Oct 30 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
Nov 1 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theatre
Nov 2 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Commonwealth
Nov 4 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Hall
Nov 5 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
Nov 6 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore
Nov 8 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Nov 10 – San Francisco, CA @ Palace of Fine Arts
Nov 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Nov 12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Nov 14 – San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park Theatre
Nov 15 – Phoenix, AZ @ Musical Instrument Museum
Feb 3 – Malmö, SE @ Palladium
Feb 5 - Groningen, NL @ De Oosterpoort
Feb 6 – Berlin, DE @ Passionkirche
Feb 8 – Leuven, BE @ Het Depot
Feb 9 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
Feb 10 – Ghent, BE @ De Vooruit Concertzaal
Feb 12 – London, UK @ EartH Theatre
Feb 13 – London, UK @ EartH Theatre
Feb 15 – Paris, FR @ La Gaîté Lyrique
Feb 17 – Geneva, CH @ Antigel Festival/Alhambra
Feb 18 – Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
Feb 19 – Vienna, AT @ Arena
Feb 20 – Milan, IT @ Magazzini Generali
Feb 22 – Copenhagen, DK @ DR Koncerthuset
Feb 23 – Oslo, NO @ Kulturkirken Jakob
Feb 26 - Norrköping, SE @ Arbis
Feb 27 – Gothenburg, SE @ Konserthuset
March 3 – Stockholm, SE @ Cirkus