Emmy The Great’s ‘April / 月音’ Is A Love Letter To Hong Kong

It's out on October 9th...

Emmy The Great will release new album 'April / 月音' on October 9th.

The songwriter last released a solo record in 2017, and since then has been kept busy with her extensive film and television work.

Returning to Hong Kong in 2018, she fell in love with the city once more, the city of her birth. She recalls:

"That Spring, I’d visited China and accidentally become somewhat fluent in Cantonese again, though the goal had been to speak Mandarin. I was there for a music residency, and had expected to feel an instant click."

"Instead, I realised that Hong Kong had an identity quite separate from the Mainland, and with my mother tongue reinstated, I was beginning to come to terms with that identity being a part of mine. This was tough – I was born in Hong Kong but I’ve always felt complicated about it."

These feelings reach fruition in her new album, which is informed by the character, community, and people of Hong Kong.

"I’ll never know why the city called me back, but I know what it gave me," she says. "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."

New album 'April / 月音' is out on October 9th via Bella Union (order LINK) with new song 'Dandelions / Liminal' online now.

Tracklisting:
1. Mid-Autumn / 月音
2. Writer
3. Dandelions / Liminal
4. Chang-E
5. A Window / O'Keeffe
6. Okinawa / Ubud
7. Your Hallucinations
8. Mary
9. Hollywood Road / April
10. Heart Sutra

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