Carla dal Forno Announces U.S. Tour in Support of Confession

Following the release of her critically acclaimed album Confession, Carla dal Forno has confirmed a select run of U.S. tour dates this September in support of the record, out now via her imprint Kallista Records.

The announcement arrives on the heels of widespread praise for Confession, a record that continues to position dal Forno as one of the most distinct voices working within minimalist pop and post-punk. Publications including Pitchfork, Stereogum, NPR, and Bandcamp Daily have highlighted the album’s emotional precision and restraint, with Stereogum naming it “Album of the Week” and Bandcamp Daily selecting it as “Album of the Day.”

The run opens in Los Angeles on September 12 at 2220 Arts + Archives before moving north to San Francisco’s The Chapel on September 13. From there, dal Forno heads to Chicago’s Empty Bottle on September 15 and continues on to New York on September 17 for a performance at Knockdown Center, wrapping with a multi-day stop in Philadelphia from September 18–20, with venue details to be announced.

At its core, Confession is a study in emotional tension, where stability meets desire, and everyday routines become charged with meaning. Written and recorded over several years in a small Australian town, much of the album took shape inside a studio housed within a partially abandoned hospital, a setting that informs its sense of stillness and introspection.

“This wasn’t the album I intended to make,” Carla dal Forno explains. “I originally wanted something veiled and abstract, but I realised I couldn’t hide behind abstraction, the songs only worked when I leaned into emotional truth.”

That shift toward emotional clarity has been widely noted. As AllMusic observes, “with every successive album she makes, Carla dal Forno’s songwriting becomes clearer, more upfront, and more emotionally direct.”

Across Confession, dal Forno explores closeness, longing, and the instability that can emerge within even the most familiar relationships. The album moves through paired emotional states, going out and staying in, devotion and distraction, capturing the quiet friction between comfort and desire.

“I live in a small country town that offers a stillness my life didn’t previously have,” she says. “In that quiet, feelings I might’ve ignored in a busy city grew loud.”

That internal shift anchors the album’s narrative, particularly in songs like “Going Out” and “Under the Covers,” which trace the movement from desire and denial to intimacy shaped by routine. The latter, accompanied by a stop-motion video built from paintings by Ruth O'Leary, reflects what dal Forno describes as “the quiet kind of love, the kind that builds slowly in shared routines.”

Sonically, Confession expands on dal Forno’s established palette while maintaining its characteristic restraint. Elastic basslines and minimal arrangements create space for subtle shifts in tone, drawing on post-punk and dream-pop traditions while remaining distinctly her own.

Critics have pointed to echoes of Young Marble Giants in the album’s sparse structures, while also noting its ability to balance emotional intensity with compositional control. As Bandcamp Daily writes, the record

“applies restraint and tightly coiled post-punk minimalism to an avalanche of emotion.”

Elsewhere, tracks like “Nighttime” lean into dub-tinged atmospheres, while “Blue Skies” introduces a brighter, more open melodic sensibility. Instrumental moments such as “On the Ward” and “Drip Drop” serve as pauses within the album's narrative, allowing the emotional undercurrent to settle and expand.

“The instrumental tracks work as emotional interludes,” dal Forno notes. “Little pockets of space where the story breathes without words.”

Rather than offering resolution, Confession lingers in ambiguity. It traces a subtle emotional arc-attraction, obsession, clarity, and eventual acceptance, without forcing conclusions.

“In the end, Confession became the most personal, unguarded thing I’ve ever made,” dal Forno reflects. “I wrote plainly about what I was actually living through.”

That openness is central to the album’s impact. As Pitchfork notes, its “ugly moments [are] as brave and vulnerable as any introspective singer-songwriter’s revelations,” while NPR describes it as “a really beautiful, captivating release from an artist who just keeps getting better and better.”

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