Brighton-based Australian vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappes will release her fifth full-length album ‘A Requiem’ on April 4th via One Little Independent. The album isdescribed as ten haunting, ambient soundscapes – incantations of dreams and nightmares, of death and grief, as well as power and autonomy. Carnal, transcendent cello drones are used to exorcise historical and generational traumas in an evocative and macabre piece of gothic experimentalism.
Aptly timed for Samhain, the night when the worlds of the living and the dead are closest, her new single ‘Sleep‘, is accompanied by a gothic marvel, directed by Agnes Haus, which features Maxine Peake and Kate Dickie. Penelope says: “As ‘Sleep’ is about a dream my father had and had echoes of Henry Fuseli’s ‘The Nightmare’, I decided to bring that painting to life – me as the ‘sleep hag’, but I needed an actor to be the ‘sleeping victim’. As a massive fan of Maxine Peake’s work, I reached out to her about working together on it. In a totally independent occurrence, I was introduced to Kate Dickie – who I am also a big fan of – and she was nearby and happy to get involved. It was an absolutely perfect cast! Three witches! We all chatted about politics in the kitchen and filmed an unscripted pseudo-horror film about sleep paralysis in a bedroom – and it all worked out beautifully!”
Talking further about the lyrics, she adds, “It’s infinitely hard to even sing these words as it’s such a conflicting thing to think about – an oddly indifferent longing for your parents’ life to come to a close, for them to peacefully escape their pain and be released. Musically the sound was heavier and more gut-wrenching than I have ever sounded before. It was a drastic and extreme purge of emotion”.
Stream ‘Sleep’: https://penelopetrappes.lnk.to/sleep