Ghostwoman announce Welcome to the Civilized World out 5 September
Ghostwoman, the Belgium/Canada-based project of Evan Uschenko and Ille van Dessel, have released a new single and video titled “Levon”, taken from their upcoming fourth album Welcome to the Civilized World, due out 5 September 2025 via Full Time Hobby. The band has also announced a series of European and UK live dates for later this year.
Artist: Ghostwoman
Release Date: 2025-09-05
Genres: Garage Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Label: Full Time Hobby
Description: Ghostwoman release new single and video “Levon” ahead of their fourth album Welcome to the Civilized World, out 5 September via Full Time Hobby.
The track, written between Canada and Belgium, was originally left unfinished before being reworked by the duo. Ille van Dessel explained: “The first version of ‘Levon’ was fabricated a long time ago but we basically threw it away, or kind of left it aside. Eventually, Evan wanted to do something with the demo again, so we rearranged the song, adding lyrics and the new guitar and solo. It was written in Canada and is named after Evan’s dog Levon (who gets his name from The Band’s Levon Helm). We finalised it in Belgium, and that was that.”
Directed by Ryan Faist, the video was inspired by the song’s repetitive structure. Faist noted: “‘Levon’ has the perfect bpm and rhythm to it for some sort of driving force. […] I started playing with a pencil on my desk and realized it’s the perfect song for it.” The video was filmed in a long-abandoned trailer home in rural surroundings and features two friends, Will and Simon, in a quasi-documentary style.
Welcome to the Civilized World was recorded over two years between Canada and Belgium, in domestic spaces ranging from a friend’s home in Alberta to a snow-covered cottage in the Ardennes. Entirely written, recorded, and produced by Uschenko and van Dessel, the album reflects their highly intuitive and self-contained working methods. Many of the recordings were captured using old, repurposed tape equipment, often used until exhausted and then sold.
The album’s content was informed by personal loss and existential unease. Uschenko described the work as a reaction to the “absurdity of human behaviour and the circus that is life,” noting a year marked by suicides among friends. Much of the lyrical material, according to the band, is abstract or improvisational in nature, intended to match the mood and rhythm rather than convey direct meaning.
Musically, the release features a mixture of psychedelic rock, psych-grunge, garage elements, and decaying Americana, often recorded live and minimally edited. Tracks like “5 Gold Pieces” originated as sound tests on a newly purchased tape machine and were kept in their original form.
“Alive,” the first single from the album, was written in rural Belgium and originally titled “Pondi” after a hedgehog encountered near the pond of the house where the band was staying.
Welcome to the Civilized World follows the band’s previous releases: Ghostwoman (2022), Anne, If (2023), and Hindsight is 50/50 (2023).
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