Ethereal Folk with an Avant-garde Twist
Jessie Monk premieres her new single, «Gold Flowers», with Negative White. It is a whimsical avant-garde folk tune—full of wonders and mystique.
What happens if one takes the tradition-heavy folk music, adds avant-garde and mystical flavours, and just runs with it? It might very well sound like Gold Flowers by Jessie Monk.
The song, releasing tomorrow, celebrates its premiere today with Negative White.—alongside a stunning video directed by Christy Chudosnik and choreographed by Lily Harding.
Although born in Canada, Jessie Monk grew up on the other side of the planet: in Australia‘s southeast, the land of the indigenous Gunaikurnai people. There, Monk discovered her passion for music and dance. In 2020, she then moved again and settled in Berlin.
Both, the very foundational, rural, even primordial, and the cosmopolitan, global, and progressive meet in Gold Flowers. However, there is no brutal collision, no stark contrast, but a symbiotic nurturing.
Death, Dream, and Trauma
Inspired by Gabriel García Márquez‘s 100 Years of Solitude, Monk tells the story of the Celtic goddess Mis, who‘s trying to bring back her dead father‘s soul but is ultimately overwhelmed by the terminal nature of death.
Evoked by the ethereal avant-garde folk composition, Gold Flowers creates a dream-like atmosphere, yet the lyrics infuse mighty metaphors that hint at the trauma of loss and grief.
Despite the song‘s heavy imagery, the lyrics remain cryptic and mysterious enough to facilitate a personal relationship uninterrupted by specificities.
And that is a testament to Monk‘s songwriting prowess; both in sound and story, Gold Flowers feels unquestionably human, grounded deeply in our emotions.
