Melbourne artist Ella Thompson recently released the deeply conceptual musical shapeshifter ‘Snow’, the first single to be lifted from her forthcoming EP Hysteria. It’s vocal mastery at its finest as Thompson ponders the liquidity existing within the often stifled but inexorable shifts in ideas around power and gender. In doing so, her elastic and emotive voice effortlessly glides across an cascading array of orchestral and electronic melodies with Jonti’s gorgeously subtle harmonies on loop adding to the track’s lush feel. Of the track and its visuals Thompson says;
Snow is about the feeling of temporality. I wrote it as a part of a broader work performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre last year (called Like Running Water), where through the theme of water, I am looking at fluidity, and shifting ideas of strength and power. I’m interested in the idea of metamorphosis… what changes. The women and the rocks in the visual of Snow, co-existing with soft and hard surfaces. Collaborating with Prue Stent and Honey Long on this video was pure joy, their use of body art to reconfigure the gaze is a thrill. The song started with a loop of (collaborator) Jonti’s voice, which was then developed with strings, piano and many other bits and pieces.’
Listen to Snow below and watch its video directed by Prue Stent and Honey Long. Hysteria is out through Thompson’s own label Pool in late October. Get the single digitally here.
Snow
Ella Thompson (AUS)
From the forthcoming EP, ‘Hysteria’, Pool. Out late October.
Audio Stream
Official Video