Last year, we shared the news of Brighton-based Australian vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappes fifth full-length album ‘A Requiem’ (April 4th on One Little Independent Records). The title track is another stunning piece of gothic experimentalism, accompanied once again by another visual masterpiece from Agnes Haus.
Penelope says; “A Requiem was written for my ailing parents, whom I’ve now said my goodbyes to. Since back in the UK, alone, it’s taken on another meaning as a connection with the earth under my feet here in the land that is my ancestral home. For the visual, Agnes Haus filmed me in the dead of night on a frozen field in a desolate part of East Sussex to capture the extreme cold and to honour the lonely darkness around two holy oak trees, one living, and one long dead”.
Of the accompanying video, Agnes Haus adds; “We set out unscripted into the 0 degree night with two flood lights, and came across these oak trees. Two hours later, nearly frostbitten, we truly felt like we went through an otherworldly portal into another plane”.
Haus was also responsible for the video ‘Sleep‘, another gothic marvel featuring Maxine Peake and Kate Dickie (watch it here).
The album is described as a musical service in honour of the dead, a sanctuary Trappes built for herself to explore familial chaos and history. “I was looking for an equilibrium between a ‘heaven’ and a ‘hell’” she explains, “screaming out to the wisdom of our foremothers – surfacing and leading me into true strength and beauty. I listened to the sorrow closely. Death is a part of our reality. Inevitable. Omnipresent. But nightmares can be beautiful”.
Pre-Order: https://penelopetrappes.lnk.to/requiem
Live Dates
17.04 – Stoke Newington Old Church, London, UK
19.04 – Kapel Begijnhof, Diksmuide, BE
20.04 – Roadburn Festival, Tilburg, NL
25.04 – Sacred Trinity Church, Manchester, UK
26.04 – The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, UK
02.05 – Alphabet, Brighton, UK
