A couple of years ago, we received a message from Paula and Jonathan a.k.a Hangin Freud, telling they were working on Sunken's follow-up, entitled Motherland. And then... silence...
Last autumn, they released No Body Allowed which is still available on myhand.thanx, here. The noisy, hypnotic and nightmarish mini-album was great, and we supposed it was Motherland, and that Hangin Freud had only changed the title...
But we were so wrong! A few weeks ago, a song surfaced on youtube, posted by Hangin Freud, called Boat. Motherland was coming! They distilled the first 3 songs of the mini-album, and each one was like an extraordinary gift to our ears. The 6 tracks are really profound, mixing traditional instruments and sounds with electric guitars. The voice and words of Paula are striking with emotion and kind of ominous vision of the world. Jonathan explained Motherland was above all Paula's artistic concept, based on her observations on Brazil.
Every single song is fraught with soundscapes, landscapes and stories that stay in mind: the repetitive guitar from Boat, like waves coming back and forth, the monsters from the Kingdom, creeping ineluctably, the voices from another time responding Paula's lyrics on Motherland, the rising angst coming from The South... Lost Children is probably our favourite from the album with the closing track Centuries, both have this paradoxical atmosphere, they're the kind of song that move you to tears, and at the same time, they make you want to dance... a sad but relieving dance...
Important to note that the album was mastered by Harris Newman at greymarketmastering in Canada, that the artwork was made by Alice Porto, and that cassettes made by Cryptic Caroussel are available via HF's bandcamp!