It’s been four years since Emmy The Great released her last album, although it was never intended to be this long. She recorded a new album in February 2018 and then delayed its release to allow for maternity leave, and then one thing and another… Nonetheless, she has today announced April /月音 for release on October 9, and it’s sure to be a prescient and powerful one. It was inspired by her return to Hong Kong, where she was born and where her parents live, in September 2017. She says:
“Under the guidance of the moon, I walked the city – its neon-lit alleyways, its escalators and mountain paths. For a brief, precious moment, I fell into synch with Hong Kong. I felt its complex legacy and its tangled future. I felt the sorrow, alive in the buzz of neon and the drips of air-conditioner units, of a city caught between two destinies. It was twenty years since the Handover and the beginning of ‘One Country, Two Systems’. Everywhere I went, I saw people seeking to define their shared identity before it was too late. I hope some of that spirit has found its way into the songs, which were mostly written during that time…
“I’ll never know why the city called me back, but I know what it gave me. In return, I want to give it this album. That Mid-Autumn, nobody could have predicted what was to come, neither the atomisation that began with the anti-Extradition Law protests in June 2019, nor the struggle for democracy that continues now, through the Covid-19 pandemic. To witness your birth city in its greatest moment of need is a powerful, humbling event, and I know I watched Hong Kong’s destiny shift into something turbulent and uncertain. I’m glad I recorded what I felt there, during a precious, peaceful time, when life was so good that all I had to do was trust the moon. May it be just one small piece of witness among many, and may the voices of Hong Kong never stop speaking, and asking to be heard.”
The first song shared from April /月音 is called “Dandelions/Liminal”, which takes up that marching pace matching her steps as she explores the city, simultaneously she casts images of the changing of the seasons – within and without her. A positive song with gorgeous hues of turmoil and nostalgia as it shifts into the contemplative second half, “Dandelions/Liminal” is a very welcome return for Emmy The Great.
Listen below or via your preferred streamer.
April /月音 comes out through Bella Union on October 9. You can follow Emmy The Great on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
