05 February 2024
Newsdesk
Olivia Chaney releases her new single ‘Mirror, Mirror’, listen here. The Grammy nominated, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter will release her third album, ‘Circus Of Desire’, on 22nd March 2024.
Inspired by Tarkovsky’s 1975 film Mirror, like the rest of the album, the track was produced by Thomas Bartlett (David Byrne, the Magnetic Fields, Sufjan Stevens, The National, St. Vincent, Father John Misty). With lyrics that muse on the eroticism of ‘opposites attract’, the multi-layered vocals make this a hauntingly beautiful song.
Chaney comments on ‘Mirror, Mirror’, “I finished the lyrics for this song, marching happily every morning from the cold basement flat of a painter / sculptor / hoarder, where I was staying on the cheap with my family, to the bosom of Thomas's comfortable, comforting studio in midtown. Tarkovsky's Mirror was just one of many beautiful, intense movies Thomas played silently in the background whilst we made the record (his new trick for helping unlock the songwriter's unconscious...much like the therapeutic couch). I'd never written in quite this way before and I love the freshness and freedom that I don't always find in writing where I'm more certain. Perhaps there's a more primal universality to it for that? Or, at least more mystery and hidden meanings that are open to interpretation. The song has an uncanny quality when I listen to it - as if someone else wrote it for me!”
Born in Florence, Italy, Chaney grew up in Oxford. She studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where she took in everything the conservatory had to offer. Her curiosity led her further afield, from Ligeti to West African pop, Edith Piaf to Laurie Anderson, Mary Margaret O’Hara to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Sonic Youth to Sappho, Kate Bush to old-time country music - all while finding her own voice.
‘Circus Of Desire’ is her first record since 2018’s ‘Shelter’, which saw plaudits from The Guardian, PASTE Magazine, Observer, The Line of Best Fit, and her first performance on Later With Jools Holland. This, and her debut, ‘The Longest River’, made Chaney’s name as the author of an unmistakable brand of luscious and sophisticated music that explores inherited trauma, the clash of tradition and modernity, and the darkness and light of love.
‘Circus Of Desire’ was worked on across five eventful years - it’s a collection of lovingly wrought songs that were recorded in New York with long-time collaborator, producer and musician Thomas Bartlett. The album brings a new found confidence for Chaney; a confidence that can only be found with life experience - since 2018 she has left London for Yorkshire, married, had two children and entered into the deeper mystery of life.
Consisting of ten originals and one cover (a revoicing of Dory Previn’s haunting ballad ‘Lady With The Braid’), ‘Circus Of Desire’ is Chaney set free. Taking their departure from real life experiences, these songs strain towards the universal. The title track blends the carnivalesque and meditations on ancient wisdom with an anthemic, dancy refrain. ‘Calliope’ is a tribute to Olivia’s daughter, named after the Greek muse of music and epic poetry, picturing this little life as part of the ever-revolving cosmos. ‘To The Lighthouse’ tells the story of Chaney’s sister who left the capital to live on a remote island. Like ‘Mirror, Mirror’ and ‘Why’, a pair of tracks about erotic love, the song reflects upon our capacity to flee and transcend inherited trauma. ‘Zero Sum’ is a setting of a metaphysical number poem by Chaney’s grandfather, a mathematician and poet. ‘I Wish’ - the album closer, is the ultimate breakup song.
Chaney comments, “I went to New York feeling I was delving into the unknown and that’s what I wanted. The result is an album of songs that are truer to the breadth of my influences and roots, and a special depiction of where I’ve come to in my life - the looking back and the looking forward. I hope there’s a meaningful universality to that arc, and I can’t wait to get out and play this new material live!”
The range of artists she’s shared a stage with includes Robert Plant, Zero 7, the Labeque Sisters, Martin and Eliza Carthy, and Kronos Quartet. Most recently she fronted a Grammy-nominated album, ‘The Queen of Hearts’, forming a new outfit, Offa Rex, with The Decemberists. The Guardian’s review of that album said that “Chaney has a magical voice, full of heft, soul and sunlight” and fRoots said, “Chaney has never sounded better,” while the Arts Desk said it was her “voice, with its clarity, power and emotional weight, that carries Offa Rex to the heights.” The Financial Times added that “Chaney’s singing makes ‘Willie O’ Winsbury’ one of the best versions ever.”
2024 sees a much anticipated return for Chaney and whilst staying true to her folk roots, she also enters new musical territories, venturing into the realms of pop and dance. The record features cameos from a number of friends, including string arrangements by Nico Muhly and banjo and guitar from Sam Amidon. The result of this rich blend of musical influences is an album that looks honestly, sometimes despairingly, but primarily hopefully at the carnival that is life - “we’re in a dance with death, with fire…we’re all in a circus of desire.”
‘Circus Of Desire’ is out on March 22nd 2024 through Kartel Music Group.
2024 Tour:
April 3rd - CAMBRIDGE, JUNCTION
April 10th - YORK, JACK LYONS
April 13th - MANCHESTER, STOLLER HALL
April 27th - SOUTHAMPTON, TURNER SIMS
June 6th - BRISTOL, ST.GEORGE’S
June 11th - LONDON, UNION CHAPEL
