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May 14, 2025 By Caleb Campbell

Later this week, LA-based art pop duo Bouquet are set to share their debut LP, Spellbreaker. The project is a collaboration between artist, writer, and composer Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and songwriter, producer, and professor, Max Foreman. As Bouquet, the pair conjure fluid movements of subtly layered organic and electronic textures, knit together by stately vocal harmonies, and fuzzy psych-tinged guitars.

Foreman says of the upcoming record, “When Carolyn and I came together for this project, she was an established songwriter in indie and folk music seeking to incorporate her love of post punk and new wave music into her music, and I was an experimental music composition MFA with a toolbox of experimental techniques on a mission to make unusual pop music. The result is Spellbreaker: born out of flea market record digs, guitar pedal experimentations, Craigslist parking lot meetups for cigarette-stained drum machines, and books by prestigious writers about forgotten bands. This is music we learned to make on our own, tinkering with repurposed technology, creating these unusual and wonderful songs together.”

They released the In a Dream EP in 2015 and returned after a long hiatus earlier this year with a series of new singles teasing their forthcoming debut full-length album. Today, ahead of the album’s release, the pair are sharing an early listen to the album’s title track, “Spellbreaker,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Spellbreaker” draws on a misty and mysterious dance of tones, conjuring dreamy textures with an understated allure. The track centers around a sparse, minimalist drum machine beat, laced with woozy synth lines and winding guitars that build and recede in constant motion. Each element twists together into tuneful swirls of knotted melody, twirling beneath the florid ebb and flow of the pair’s vocal harmonies. The effect feels heady and mystic, emphasizing the otherworldly currents of the duo’s art pop psychedelia.

Riggs explains of the track, “Spellbreaker’ began before I had the language for what is now so common it’s almost cliché—gaslighting. The song ultimately became less about intentional manipulation and more about the fallacy of dominant cultural norms: how I unconsciously internalized them, and the ongoing process of breaking free from them.”

Alongside the track, the band are also sharing a new video for their last single, “All Living Rooms.” This track takes a more placid and pastoral turn, with folk harmonies intertwining in contrast with the cold, mechanical drum machine beat. The video was filmed at Ryan Heffington’s DESERTRADE artist residency in 29 Palms and features Ryan dancing alongside writers Ann Friedman and Glynnis MacNicol staged in haunting static vignettes. Dancer Elaine Goddard follows behind them as a ghost searching for a physical body to dance.

Check out both the song and video below. Spellbreaker is out everywhere later this week on May 16th.