Copenhagen-based artist and producer Albert Hertz joins forces with New York-born, Danish-Iranian multidisciplinary artist Soho Rezanejad on The Clown, a left-field slowcore ballad out now.
Hertz drives the production with baritone chorus guitars, haunted bongos and layered vocals. The result frames love and grief as acts of performance; masks repeatedly adopted by someone attempting to escape their own longing.
Turning the Body Into a Stage
Written by Rezanejad, the track follows an archetypal jester performing happiness while getting swallowed by the role. Its opening turns the body itself into a stage.
I built a theatre out of my own skin
Hung curtains of nerve and bone
The Clown uses recurring phrases and layered vocals, with Hertz’s backing voices circling Rezanejad’s lead and its central question:
Paint these smiles on every mask
Split myself in half to ask
How to love what breaks me bare?
Repetition functions as psychological pressure rather than a conventional hook. Each new vocal layer expands the arrangement while making escape feel less possible.
A second recurring line pushes that conflict further:
The lover inside me keeps dying and refuses to stay dead.
Collaboration as a Production System
The Clown was composed by Hertz and Rezanejad, with production by Hertz and Jacob Günther. Günther mixed the record and played drums, while Hertz handled the remaining instrumentation and contributed backing vocals. The artwork was created by Frederik Tøt Godsk.
Collaboration is central to both artists’ working methods. Rezanejad’s catalogue moves between electronic composition, experimental music, pop songwriting and audiovisual installation. Her previous collaborators include CTM, Croatian Amor, Lust For Youth, Varg2tm and Frederik Valentin.
Hertz emerged from Copenhagen’s noise-rock scene before moving across bands, runway scores, performance art and collective projects. In 2020, he initiated Wheelie Xtender Group, which featured artists including ML Buch, Henriette Motzfeldt of Smerz, Clarissa Connelly, Molina and Tettix Hexer.
Albert Hertz Moves Towards His Debut Album
The Clown is Hertz’s fifth single since he began releasing music under his given name in February. It also continues the build towards his debut album, expected in autumn 2026.
Baritone guitar, spectral percussion and stacked vocals turn the clown metaphor into sound, adding layers that never fully conceal the grief underneath.