Photo by Alex Kacha
Perfume Genius has shared “Natural High,” the first piece of music from The Lesson, a new collaborative music and dance performance created with choreographer Kate Wallich.
The six-minute track was co-produced by Pascal Stevenson of Fashion Club and begins with shadowy keyboard figures before opening into gauzy synths and eventually a full house-driven finale. It marks Mike Hadreas’ first release since Perfume Genius’ 2025 album Glory.
The Lesson reunites Hadreas and Wallich following their 2019 collaboration The Sun Still Burns Here, the project that later fed into Perfume Genius’ Ugly Season. Inspired by Elfriede Jelinek’s novel The Piano Teacher and Michael Haneke’s film adaptation, the new work explores desire, restraint, authority and repression through live music and movement.
The full score will feature entirely new Perfume Genius music, with more expected to be released in 2027.
The Lesson will premiere at REDCAT in Los Angeles in February before traveling to New York, Paris, London, Utrecht, Dublin, Minneapolis and Seattle.
