Blue Foundation return withĀ āHarsh Loveā,Ā a haunting, intimate new track added to their latest albumĀ āClose to the Knifeā.
Featuring the ethereal vocals of Helena Gao, the song captures the ache of emotional dissonance, the quiet collapse between two people trying to love through damage.
Written during the same sessions that birthedĀ āClose to the Knifeā,Ā āHarsh LoveāĀ carries the same emotional weight: minimal yet lush, driven by ambient textures, fractured rhythms, and lyrical honesty. Helena Gaoās voice weaves through the track like a distant memory, fragile, questioning, unresolved.
āI guess I took it out on you,ā the song begins, disarmed and direct. Itās a confession, not an apology. The kind of truth you whisper in the dark when everything else has already come undone.
In the words of Blue Foundationās Tobias Wilner:
āItās about the moment where you realize love has turned into something else, something harder, colder. But still, youāre reaching. Youāre trying to hold on. Helena understood that from the inside.ā
Helena Gao also appears onĀ āEcstasy in SpaceāĀ andĀ āVoyage to the Starsā, butĀ āHarsh LoveāĀ stands apart in its stark emotional clarity. Sparse production, slow-burn synths, and whispered harmonies unfold like smoke. Itās not a song about closure. Itās a song about what happens when there isnāt any.
The track features atmospheric guitar textures byĀ Xie YugangĀ of Wang Wen andĀ Jonas MunkĀ (Manual, Causa Sui), whose layered work expands the sonic space, stretching tension into something strangely beautiful. Together, their guitars giveĀ āHarsh LoveāĀ its cinematic weight, floating just above the wreckage.
More songs will be added toĀ āClose to the KnifeāĀ in the coming months, each one an extension of the same world: fractured, beautiful, and brutally honest.
The band have also announced a new tour for later this year, including a London date at Oslo, Hackney on October 17th.