Premiere: Lili Haydn Releases ‘Sayonara’ Single Ahead of Her Forthcoming ‘More Love’ Album
And while the ominous but optimistic track showcases Lili’s plaintive vocals and exhilarating violin playing over a sultry trip-hop beat, we were especially taken with the accompanying video. In it, artist Norton Wisdom is seen painting a portrait inspired – of course – by the song, but in time lapse (because, obviously, no one can actually paint that fast). – BlackBook
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, composer, and violinist Lili Haydn shares her new single “Sayonara,” a song calling for love and change in the United States as Inauguration Day for the Biden-Harris administration approaches. She’s also shared the video for the song featuring a time-lapse video of artist Norton Wisdom painting live to the music. The song is the first to be shared from Haydn’s forthcoming album More Love which is due this Spring on Lakeshore Records.
“I’ve howled so many times over the last 4 years (and indeed before that) ‘enough is enough…’ of the suffering and dogma and endless war and brutality,” says Haydn. “This song is my throwing down the gauntlet to the systems of oppression, starting with my own participation… ‘I’m laying down my arms today. Not another in my name.’ It seemed especially relevant and even celebratory to release it right before the inauguration.”
Stream and purchase “Sayonara” here: [Digital]
Watch “Sayonara” premiered today at BlackBook.
With the release of More Love, her first solo release in six years, Haydn draws whimsy and purpose from her palette of cinematic alternative music, gracing us with a thematically and sonically compelling way forward out of the dark challenges of 2020. Yet the mission of this groundbreaking recording goes far beyond that. As a survivor of COVID-19 herself and grateful to be alive, she is, more than ever before, celebrating the miracle of life itself.
Since the release of her last solo album LiliLand in 2014, Haydn has scored 7 films, including Academy Award-winner Freida Mock’s Anita: Speaking Truth to Power, The House That Jack Built, and Sundance Selects’ Driver X; contributed additional score to seasons 2 & 3 of the Emmy-winning series Transparent; won a Grammy award for her band Opium Moon’s self-titled debut record; performed four TED presentations, and got married.
Building on that momentum, 2021 is shaping up to be a watershed year for Lili as both a composer and recording artist, starting with the release of “Sayonara” just before Inauguration Day, and continuing with the full album release in tandem with a flurry of film and TV projects featuring her dynamic scores. The films include the feature documentary Strip Down, Rise Up by Oscar-nominated director Michele Ohayon, set for a February 5 release on Netflix; and Oscar winner Freida Mock’s latest feature documentary RUTH: Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words, debuting in virtual cinemas on February 12. In addition, Lili co-composed the music for Ginny & Georgia, a 10-episode series coming soon to Netflix.
Two of the tracks on More Love, the tense and dramatic “Is This Love, Is This Life” and the hypnotic, electronica driven vocal track “The Devil You Know,” are from the soundtrack of Strip Down Rise Up, a film about women who heal their traumas and shame through pole dancing and embark on a journey to reclaim themselves. As a sexual trauma survivor herself, Lili related to its hard-hitting theme. Another track from More Love, “Circle of My Heart,” a haunting vocal-piano-violin ballad which she wrote with David Poe (whom she originally met in the Sundance Fellowship), was also originally written for the same film.
More Love Tracklist:
1) Overture
2) Sayonara
3) Sayonara pt. 2 (Prayer for Peace)
4) More Love
5) Is this Love, Is this Life
6) Devil You Know
7) Circle of My Heart
8) Graduation