With her highly-anticipated new album set to drop next week, Emmy The Great has now unveiled yet another cut lifted from her forthcoming full-length.
The new single 'Chang-E' follows on from the previously shared tracks 'A Window/O’Keeffe', 'Mary' and 'Dandelions/Liminal' in previewing her new LP 'April / 月音', which is set to be released on the 9th October via Bella Union.
Speaking about the new offering, she said, "It begins with this. 'Chang-E', the wife of the tyrant Hou Yi, drinks the elixir of immortality to save China from his eternal reign. She ascends to the moon, and lives there with the Jade Rabbit, its original inhabitant. In Mid-Autumn, we celebrate Chang-E’s sacrifice with a festival of lanterns and lights. Many centuries later, NASA tells the moon-bound Apollo 11 astronauts to look out for the Chinese queen and her rabbit. Michael Collins replies, 'We’ll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl'."
While adding about the new video, "I wanted to tell the story of the moon goddess as I heard it as a child. It's a lesser known version of the famous legend (which forms the centrepiece of Mid-Autumn celebrations), and all the more evocative because Chang-E's destiny is decided by an act of defiance. I had worked with animator Renee Zhan on her film O Black Hole, and I knew she would understand the story and its roots. The creative team also included Mona Chalabi (storyboard), Armiliah Aripin (editing), and Jesse Romain (production). In the fragmented lives we're living in at the moment, the ideas came together remotely from around the world. This is reflected in the footage between the animation, which is from my personal archive, and a performance of Chang-E on Hong Kong's RTHK, that I performed while five months pregnant."
Check out the new video for 'Chang-E' in the player below.