Robin Kester announces debut album and co-headline tour with Amber Arcades, shares new single Celeste

Robin Kester announces debut album and co-headline tour with Amber Arcades, shares new single Celeste

Robin Kester will release her debut album Honeycomb Shades on February 24, 2023 via AT EASE. Drifting between the outer realms of chamber pop, electronic music and psychedelic rock, Kester writes wholly adventurous music. Robin Kester's record features eleven tracks, including the new single Celeste.

Robin Kester announced a release tour throughout the Netherlands, with eight dates co-headlining with Amber Arcades, who will release a new album in February on Fire Records.  In January, Kester and her band will be playing ESNS (Eurosonic) in Groningen. Following the MUSE-support at Carré Amsterdam, Robin Kester will be playing at AB Brussels, supporting Intergalactic Lovers, as well as shows with Douglas Firs in Belgium and with Moss in the Netherlands in november and december. 

Robin Kester on Celeste

"This song started with a riff on a guitar in a weird low tuning. We then stacked the guitar riffs with a bunch of layers, clogging up the song. Once we started to slowly undress the track again, everything fell into place.

The vocal melody followed very instinctively and I kind of wanted to keep that humming/mumble vibe present in the final lyrics. I listened carefully to my initial guide track murmurs, discovering lyrics in them. The funny thing is that in those initial vocals I could hear myself singing: ‘What are you trying to say?’. And that was also how I was feeling at the time, a bit lost and detached, not really present in my own body.

Everything in the vocal melody came naturally and was formed mostly subconsciously, feeling intimate to me (the sighs and my breathing especially) , whereas building the instrumentation was more of a process where everything needed to be stripped down again to fall into place."

Honeycomb Shades

Honeycomb Shades is produced by Robin Kester with Marien Dorleijn (Moss), with additional production and mix by Ali Chant (Yard Act, Aldous Harding, PJ Harvey) and mastered by Joe Lambert (Sharon Van Etten, The Antlers). 



Musicians on the album are Robin Kester, Marien Dorleijn, Sam van Hoogstraten, Thijs Visscher, Joep van Osch, Stef Koenis, Michiel Stam, Susanne Linssen, Jelte Heringa, Timo Jilesen, Ali Chant and Emily Cross.

Artwork by Jenna Arts, Photography; Sanja Marušić, Graphic design: Ashleigh Brennan. 

The album will be out on February 24 via AT EASE on vinyl (ATEASE004LP), cd (ATEASE004CD) and streaming.


About Robin Kester

If fear keeps you from doing things, your world becomes smaller. Overcoming that fear by courting new, sometimes unnerving situations is the premise of Dutch recording artist and musician Robin Kester. Kester’s experimental pop exudes a hazy euphoria and dark tension: the thrill of your synapses firing on all cylinders before turning into fully-formed thought. 

Garnering widespread acclaim with her mini-album This Is Not A Democracy last year – with airplay from BBC 6 Radio, KCRW and KEXP – Kester has drawn a wide range of comparisons, ranging from Portishead, Broadcast to Julia Holter. Though operating on a comparable sonic wavelength, Robin Kester is a distinct voice coming fully into her own. In 2022 Robin Kester played four shows at SXSW in Austin, TX, opened for MUSE in Amsterdam and her music was prominently featured in the film Press Play, alongside Japanese Breakfast and Father John Misty. Her two latest singles both premiered on Lauren Laverne's morning show on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Drifting between the outer realms of chamber pop, electronic music and psychedelic rock, Kester writes wholly adventurous music. Not adventurous per se in the naive sense, since there’s always some element of mystery on the prowl. Having moved around from town to town a lot as a child, many of her songs reframe past impressions into wandering reflections, often inspired by specific moments and sceneries.

2022
Nov 10: Haarlem – Patronaat #
Nov 17: Heerlen – Nieuwe Nor #
Dec 2: Enschede – Metropool #
Dec 3: Amersfoort – Fluor #
Dec 9: Brussel – AB %
Dec 10: Vlaardingen – Kroepoekfabriek #
Dec 15: Heist-Op-Den-Berg – CC Zwanenberg ^
Dec 16: Strombeek - CC Strombeek ^

2023

Jan 20: Groningen – ESNS 

Mar 22: Den Haag – Paard & 
Mar 23: Nijmegen – Merleyn &
Mar 25: Utrecht – EKKO &
Mar 26: Haarlem – Patronaat &
Mar 31: Groningen – Vera &

Apr 5: Rotterdam – Rotown &
Apr 6: Tilburg – Cul de Sac &
Apr 9: Amsterdam – Paradiso Tolhuistuin &

#
 support Moss
%
 support Intergalactic Lovers
^
 support Douglas Firs
&
 double bill with Amber Arcades