Yaelokre‘s Keath Ósk has launched a new solo era, announcing debut album ‘Foreword’ with the experimental single ‘And The Hound’. Check it out, along with live tour details, below.
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Set for release on September 4 via Atlantic Records (pre-order here), ‘Foreword’ marks a new chapter for Keath Ósk, and sees them re-record and reimagine the songs that they originally released under the Yaelokre moniker.
While the original releases saw the Filipino-Icelandic singer-songwriter, illustrator, and multimedia creator lean into traditional acoustic indie-folk and mythological themes, the new versions under their own name and identity will see them push the boundaries of their sound.
The subtle, intricate, otherworldly sound of the Yaelokre has been swapped out for a “beguiling, desert-noir brass backdrop”, and generally there are more rich sonic landscapes in place.
Keath Ósk ‘Foreword’ album
The first preview of the album comes with the new version of ‘And The Hound’ – where the previously-delicate single becomes larger than life and more dramatic than ever before.
“‘And The Hound’ has always been my favourite out of all of the songs that I released as Yaelokre,” said Ósk. “I just kept adding more and more into it. I added more lyrics to it, I kept singing it differently every single time and I expanded it from that. It helped me a lot to stay creative, and I felt the need to honor it in this way.”
For the album, Ósk worked with South London–based writer, producer and composer Jack Hardman (a.k.a. Good Dog), and added more brass instruments, woodwinds, and nods to alt-pop, hip-hop, and jazz.
They also recorded a cover of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘80s classic, ‘Holding Out For A Hero’.
“These songs were written when I was a teenager,” Ósk explained. “Yaelokre started up quite abruptly, and I didn’t have the resources to actually accomplish the songs in the way I wanted them to be. But now I’m at a comfortable point in my life where I can have fun and input my personal style into it.
“I feel like it’s a really good way to close the first chapter of Yaelokre and introduce me coming into music in my own right.”
The ‘Foreword’ tracklist is:
‘Hartebeest’
‘Harpy Hare’
‘And The Hound’
‘Neath The Grove Is a heart’
‘My Farewells To The Fields’
‘Bird Bage Blue And Yellow’
‘Kid & Leveret’
‘To Douse A Scalded Tongue’
‘Kamahalan’
‘Keath’s Response’
‘Hearken’
‘Holding Out For A Hero’
Keath Ósk will embark on a world headline tour kicking off October 7 in Europe, and dates on that leg include a slot at London’s O2 Shepherds Bush Empire on October 29. This will be followed by a North American leg beginning November 9 in Orlando, Florida.
Dates wrap up at the White Oak Music Hall in Houston, Texas on December 20, and you can visit here for tickets.
Keith Osk. CREDIT: RYAN BLEWETT
Keath Ósk’s world tour dates are:
OCTOBER
7 – Gent, BE – Club Wintercircus
8 – Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg
9 – Hamburg, DE – Fabrik
11 – Prague, CZ – ARCHA+
12 – Berlin, DE – Hole⁴⁴
14 – Warsaw, PL – Progresja
15 – Kraków, PL – Klub Studio
17 – Vienna, AT – Flex
18 – Munich, DE – CRAFT Veranstaltungs AG Nachtwerk
20 – Zürich, CH – Dynamo
22 – Madrid, ES – Lula Club
23 – Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz 2
25 – Paris, FR – Alhambra
27 – Bristol, UK – O2 Academy Bristol
28 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy 2 Birmingham
29 – London, UK – O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
30 – Leeds, UK – Leeds Beckett Students’ Union
NOVEMBER
1 – Glasgow, UK – Oran Mor Auditorium
2 – Manchester, UK – Manchester Academy 2
3 – Dublin, IE – The Academy
4-8 – Reykjavik, IS – Icelandic Airwaves 2026 †
9 – Orlando, FL – The Beacham
10 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
12 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In
13 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground
14 – Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls Theatre
15 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
17 – Cleveland, OH – Globe Iron
18 – Washington, DC – The Howard Theatre
20 – Asbury Park, NJ – Asbury Lanes
22 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
23 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
24 – Boston, MA – Royale
25 – Toronto, ON – East End United
26 – Montreal, QC – Le Studio TD
29 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
30 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
DECEMBER
2 – Denver, CO – Cervantes’ Other Side
4 – Salt Lake City, UT – Soundwell
6 – Spokane, WA – The District – Knitting Factory
8 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
9 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
11 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
13 – San Francisco, CA – The Castro Theatre
15 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
16 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
18 – Austin, TX – Brushy Street Commons
19 – Dallas, TX – Echo Lounge & Music Hall
20 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
† FESTIVAL APPEARANCE
At the start of the year, Yaelokre featured on the NME 100 and was praised as a “folk-pop troubadour in their own land of make-believe”.
“Keath Ósk takes worldbuilding seriously. As Yaelokre, the Filipino-Icelandic songwriter, musician and illustrator makes folk-pop with a flair for the dramatic, fleshing out a fantastical, fictional story of four masked children in a world called Meadowlark,” the entry read.
“The lore runs deep, and that’s the point – Yaelokre’s intricate, absorbing universe welcomes fanart and cosplay, and listeners all over the world have obliged with fervour: their first world tour, which took them all over the US, UK and Europe last year, was sold out.”
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