Shelf Life, album, Doyenne (2026)

Releases October 21, 2026

Shelf Life follows a character who collects objects that share the same expiration date. As the date approaches, the inevitability of an ending emerges. Through repetition, obsession, and satire, everyday protocols are transformed into a dreamlike landscape where memory and surveillance take center stage.

Shelf life is a designation used to determine the function and value of a commodity and to establish whether it is fit to sell, use, or consume. But what happens once an object crosses that threshold? Working through notions of ‘expiration’ in a surrealist and associative manner, the album explores the invisible infrastructures and systems of surveillance embedded in everyday life.

The musical release Shelf Life is based on Matilda Tjäder’s eponymous short story, originally written for an exhibition in 2024 and later adapted for the stage as Shelf Life: An Opera, created in collaboration with Mathias Tang, Penny Yiou Peng, and Thibaut Knapp, and premiered at Inkonst, Malmö (SE), on September 26, 2025.

Written, produced and performed by Matilda Tjäder
Flute on The Supermarket, The Phone Call, Inhuman Eye and W and D by Angelina Petrovic
Guitar on Eight Limbs, Eight Paths, The Phone Call and Shelf Life by Niklas Tjäder 
Drums on 26092025 and The Parasite by Rune Kielsgaard 
Song on The Bar by Thibaut Knapp
Mixing by Daniel Tjäder and Matilda Tjäder
Master: Daniel Tjäder

The CD contains the libretto and artwork by the artist as well as photographs by Ellie Lizbeth Brown, and stills from the performance ‘Shelf Life: An Opera‘ (2025) by Marijn Degenaar