Former NIGHTWISH vocalist Tarja Turunen has released the official music video for "The Trace Outlives", the third single from her upcoming album "Frisson Noir", due June 12 via earMUSIC. The track features a striking guest appearance by Sayo Komada, a shamisen player fluent in both the Tsugaru and Nagauta styles — a collision of worlds that underlines just how sonically adventurous this record is.
"Frisson Noir" has been described in press materials as "the heaviest record of her career and a powerful statement of identity, strength and belonging" — and Tarja herself has been refreshingly candid about why it took so long to achieve that weight in a studio context.
"For some time already I've been looking for a really heavy sound for my albums," she explains. "My band always sounds super heavy on the live shows, and I love it. I always, always loved it. That power, it's supporting my big voice. But I haven't been able to reach it for my album productions." The key, she says, was working with mixing engineer Neal Avron, whose contributions finally bridged the gap between what Tarja achieves on stage and what's captured on record.
The result is an album that moves between intimate piano passages, dramatic orchestral textures, and powerful guitar-driven moments — 10 tracks navigating fear, beauty, nostalgia, resilience, transformation, and identity. At the center is Tarja's voice: capable of fragile emotional expression one moment, operatic power the next, always serving the song.
Having built her classical foundation from the age of six before joining NIGHTWISH in the late 1990s and launching one of metal's most celebrated solo careers, Tarja is treating "Frisson Noir" as a defining artistic statement. June 12 can't come soon enough.