Ireland’s Anna Mieke today shared her new single “Ornament,” a B-side off her acclaimed second album Theatre, released in November 2022 via Nettwerk. Her music has been described as the surreal soundtrack of a vast personal plain steeped in nostalgia, family, memory, death and dreaming—where gritty reality and romanticism meet. This duality forms the thematic core of her latest album.
Speaking about the song, she says, “Ornament was recorded during Theatre sessions but never made it onto the album. It didn’t feel finished at the time, and I wanted more time with it. I’m very happy to be finally releasing it. I’ve played this live quite a lot, so it may be familiar if you’ve been to a show of ours.”
Giving some background to the song, she explains it as… “an observation on time, love, passing on and the significance of what we leave behind after we go. How objects/places take on a whole new meaning and role after the person they were attached to isn’t there anymore. Also, a sort of looking at other lives lived and what could have been, not at all in a regretful way, just a curiosity in that. The song to me feels uplifting and outward-looking; the feeling of lightness that can come from a shift in perspective.”
The song, on which an entrancing soundscape creates a warm, golden atmosphere for Anna Mieke’s soothing and equally hypnotic vocals, is accompanied by a video directed by Véra Haddad, who says: “This video is in the thread of impressionism: we kept our cameras with us and used the idea of Ornament as our lens on the everyday. We found many connections to the details of the song lyrics and story by happenstance.”
Anna Mieke returns to North America this month, for her second headline tour there since the release of Theatre, as well as a support tour with Flyte.
TOUR DATES:
Nov 1 – Bauschaus, Charlotte VT
Nov 2 – The Word Barn, Exeter NH
Nov 3 – Newport Live Presents at Colony House, RI
Nov 4 – Public Records, Brooklyn NY
Nov 5 – The Stone Church, Brattleboro VT
Nov 6 – Club Passim, Cambridge MA
Nov 8 – Monarch Tavern, Toronto ONT
Nov 10 – The Hideout, Chicago
Nov 14 – South Pasadena Masonic Lodge, Los Angeles CA *
Nov 15 – Parkfield Café, Parkfield, CA
Nov 16 – Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco CA *
Nov 18 – The Old Church, Portland OR*
Nov 20 – Tractor Tavern, Seattle WA *
Nov 21 – Wise Hall, Vancouver BC *
*Supporting Flyte