Shannen Moser - A VOID
Philadelphia-based artist Shannen Moser announced their first album in more than four years The Sun Still Seems To Move will be released on September 30, 2022 via Lame-O Records. They also shared the official video for the album’s opening track “Paint By Number.”
“I wrote this song at a time when days truly just felt like the days were bleeding into one another. I had been experiencing a lot of change in my life and the dichotomy of monotony and chaos at the same time was really confusing - things felt slow and in that I found a lot of comfort despite the sadness and uncertainty. “‘A series of quiet moments makes forever’ you reply” - Leaning into the stillness of those kinds of feelings can be extremely humbling. This song is really an attempt at gratitude for the loved ones in my life and the experience of being able to quiet the darkness for one another,” explains Moser.
On The Sun Still Seems To Move, Moser’s third studio album, they take the arresting simplicity of their previous albums I’ll Sing (2018) and Oh, My Heart (2017) and combine it with orchestral swells and rich harmonies. What started as a simple vocals-and-guitar record soon shifted, as Moser experienced a sudden loss. Two years into writing the record, The Sun Still Seems To Move morphed into a texturally diverse and palatial sonic universe, mimicking the immeasurable scope of ever-changing circumstance. “At a certain point I was like, let’s just go for it. Let’s just really lean into the sadness of the world. I really wanted to make a thing that I had never made before, because I was feeling a way that I had never felt before,” explains Moser.
To piece together the patchwork of The Sun Still Seems To Move, Moser enlisted the help of their extended music community, including co-producer Alex Melendez, Tyler Bussey (Thank You Thank You/Strange Ranger), Julia Peters, Maxwell Stern, Tyler Carmody, Mark Nestman, Eric Muth and Josh Marre (Blue Ranger). Banjo, saxophone, cello, lap steel, woodwind and synth adorn the album, decorating Moser’s arrangements but never overwhelming them.
“Being able to have a space with my friends and make a record where I was allowed to fully make this art in the face of that pain was really, really beautiful,” they say. “The hands that have touched this record are really special.”
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Taken from their awaited second album ‘Dissociation’, due 9 September, the discordant new track blends clear and clamouring vocals with steady guitar lines and shadowy drum beats reminiscent of the grunge greats.
Drawing influence from the likes of Hole, Silver Chair, and Babes In Toyland, “5102” sees A VOID craft a sound that pays homage to the past while simultaneously making a hell-for-leather run toward the future.
Seesawing between calmer moments of melancholy and more emotive explosions of throbbing instrumentals and turbulent riffs, the track is rhythmic and riled-up in equal measure. Vocalist Camille Alexander explains:
“”5102” is a sombre grunge track starting with dissonant guitars that slowly progress into a deep emotional outburst. A swim in the moonlight ending in a mermaid attack. The track’s mysterious name is ‘2015’ backwards: the year it was written, long before it was recorded. It’s about womanhood, using the metaphor of witches who have been stripped of their powers and their magic.”
The track arrives with a fantastical official video that offers a twisted take on some familiar fairy tales. Directed by the band’s own Camille Alexander, it was shot by Aeris Houlihan from Hexenhaus Productions and Claudia Du Lièvre. Starring Richard Simpson and Paige Burley alongside the band, additional footage was contributed by Neil Anderson.
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