We’re all on our own unique emotional road trips. Infinite Avenue happens to be Carmen’s. Here she is, holed up in the Motel Nowheresville, unpacking a suitcase full of stories of guilt, desire, rage, apathy, love and friendship, loneliness, nature, inner demons and other tales of twenty-first century womanhood. Carmen Villain is half-Norwegian and half-Mexican, born in the USA and now living in Oslo, Norway, having moved back after living in London for a few years. She has a lot of stories to tell. A makeshift studio, an infinite avenue. Writing, recording and producing alone, Carmen’s intensely personal songs are entirely self-created, made up of tapestries of guitar, piano, programmed drums and synths, making the most she could out of her limited gear. Her music, her rules… Once she had arrived at enough tracks for a follow-up album to 2013’s Sleeper, some of them were mixed with experimental house producer Matt Karmil and Quietly was treated by noise improviser Helge Sten (aka Deathprod). Taboo-busting Norwegian artist Jenny Hval contributes lyrics and vocals on Borders, a song especially relevant among today’s tightening frontiers in America and elsewhere. Red Desert is titled after the legendary Antonioni movie about a woman’s survival tactics in a surreal industrial landscape full of threats and existential crisis. With Infinite Avenue, Carmen Villain’s songwriting and production skills have taken a major leap forward, and on the final, ethereal Planetarium her voice shoots into the stratosphere, riding the comet tail of a Korg bass drone. It’s about acknowledging the immensity of the universe, while remembering that we’ve each got our own private constellation of issues to deal with down here.
