A cross-border collaboration between Berlin-based Daphne Ahlers and Vienna-based Rosa Rendl, Lonely Boys have been producing and performing music since 2010. Their name comes as a point of difference from the popular culture status quo, which tends to be one of a male-dominated music industry where women are accessories and feminine appropriation is the standard. See this piece on an explicit trend of 2014 that saw mostly men drawing on gendered aesthetics, benefiting creatively as a result.

So, here are two women calling themselves boys and making their own music and visual art projects in the meantime. They’re releasing a mini-EP of two tracks on Soundcloud (date TBC) and today premiere ‘Out of Blood / Mercy of Love’ on aqnb. Tomorrow, with a concert and a sale of Lonely Boys merchandise at Vienna’s Kurzbauergrasse called Shortest Way to Confidence, January 20.   

In the video above, Ahlers and Rendl wear their musky-pink soft shells from choir robes, sometimes known as the duo’s ‘Sad Dresses’ and last seen as part of last year’s the f-holes group exhibition at HHDM. They roll around and walk on the sand of a beach, while a languid track plays overhead. A soft, femme vocal reminiscent of Inga Copeland sings over a minimally administered harpsichord key, and arrested drum beats, applied sparingly. Dreamy overlays of moving image and boxes of plants, animals and scribbles lend itself to the melancholic quality of memory’s fade.**

Lonely Boys’ Shortest Way to Confidence performance and merchandise sale is on at Vienna’s Kurzbauergrasse, January 20, 2016.