Renowned Melbourne songstress Ella Hooper has announced the release of her new single, Häxan set for release on April 26, celebrating with a launch gig (supported by Spender) at The Workers Club on Thursday May 9.
Häxan is the sultry yet strident second single lifted from Hooper’s forthcoming debut solo album, In Tongues, set for a mid year release. With peaks of angst but mostly a sweet understated simmering, Häxan is a tale of spells, hexes and illusions. “It’s one of the more brooding songs sonically and conceptually off the album,” says Hooper, “I’ve been exploring darker territory lyrically for this record, yet Häxan still feels defiant and almost uplifting when it kicks in, which is why it’s one of my favourites to play live… I get to be quite surly, it’s like the sonic equivalent of a revenge movie.”
The Scandinavian word Häxan translates roughly to ‘The Witches’ and it is indeed a bewitching mood that Hooper manages to conjure up here. The track deftly picks up from where first single Low High left off, expanding on the film noir/ Tarantino-esque ambience and “peppers some Bad Seeds moments in there too for good measure,” explains Hooper.
The accompanying video clip was filmed by Hooper’s visual collaborator, Wilk and fittingly takes on a dreamy and hypnotic ‘under-a-spell’ theme, which follows suit with the entire In Tongues album, which tells stories of people being taken over by unseen forces, people slightly out of control. “The clip is Virgin Suicides meets the fairies at the bottom of the garden,” says Hooper.
Stay tuned for Hooper’s debut solo album, In Tongues set for release on June 28.