Longboat Turns the Darkest Betrayal of Mythology Into a Single

Igor Keller‘s Longboat project has never chased the obvious angle. Over 35 albums, the Seattle-based composer and songwriter has moved through wealth inequality, media saturation, electronic blues, and ensemble chamber pop — always on his own terms, rarely repeating himself. His 36th record, Revenge Ballads, due June 26, is no exception. And its opening statement makes that clear immediately.

“Medea,” the album’s lead single, dropped May 15. It draws from Euripides’ 431 BC Greek tragedy — one of antiquity’s most unsparing explorations of betrayal, sorcery, and consequence. Keller interpolates the myth closely: Medea, a sorceress who sacrificed her homeland and loyalty for Jason, is abandoned when he pursues a more politically advantageous marriage. What follows is total destruction. A poison gown kills Glauce, Jason’s new bride. Her father, King Creon of Corinth, dies next. Then Medea erases Jason’s sons from his legacy entirely.

Igor Keller captures the casual cruelty of Jason’s abandonment in a single line: “Everybody, especially Jason, was happy that Medea had accepted her predicament.” The arrangement reflects that arc. Acoustic guitar and Keller’s voice carry the opening — sparse, deliberate, weighted with implication. Drums arrive later, shifting the composition’s gravity in a way that mirrors the myth’s escalation.

On where the moral weight ultimately lands, Keller is direct. In his own words: “If not for all that murdering, Medea might be considered a feminist hero. But Jason emerges from these events looking like the true villain because of his thoughtless, unyielding and manipulative actions.”

That framing is central to what makes Revenge Ballads something more than a thematic playlist. The album moves across true stories, fabricated accounts, and mythological legends — building a deliberate, full-length excavation of revenge as a human experience.

Igor Keller, originally a jazz tenor saxophonist rooted in Seattle’s jazz scene, transitioned through film scoring before developing a sound that resists easy categorization — narrative-driven, satirically sharp, structurally fluid. Revenge Ballads arrives June 26 under the Longboat banner.