Hemi Hemingway - Wings of Desire (Vinyl)
Hemi Hemingway (Waitaha, Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Mutunga) announces his new album Wings of Desire, out February 20 via PNKSLM Recordings, and shares luminous new single ‘Oh, My Albertine (feat. Vera Ellen)’, out now.
‘Oh My Albertine’ was inspired by Albertine Sarrazzin’s novel Astragal, a story of a young woman breaking out of prison to reunite with her love. Channelling themes of frustration and loneliness, Hemingway says he connected deeply with the book while “waiting for the future to happen to me.”
On Vera’s performance, he adds, “I sent it to Vera and we talked about her harnessing Jonnine Standish of HTRK (à la ‘I Know A Girl Called Jonny’ by Rowland S. Howard), but what she brought far exceeded what I could have ever envisioned.” The result is a steady, considered duet in 3/4 time with a deliberate sparseness culminating in a cathartic instrumental outro which brings the track to an emotive close.
Wings of Desire, the follow-up to Hemingway’s acclaimed 2023 debut Strangers Again, is a ten-track album written during a turbulent period in his life, that captures the raw emotion and reflection of that time. Relocating from the UK back to Aotearoa in 2022 and at the end of a long-term relationship, Hemingway found himself disconnected from his desires, his identity and the people around him. These experiences poured into what has become his most expansive and euphoric era of music to date.
The title track and New Zealand Alternative Radio chart topper ‘Wings of Desire’ opens the album with the lyric “I wanna live on the wings of desire”, a reference to the 1987 Wim Wenders classic film, about the angel who gives up his wings for a chance at the human experience of love. This immediately sets the tone for the album’s recurring themes of longing, transformation and renewal.
Like Berlin in Wenders’ classic film, Wings of Desire exists in a world of its own, filled with the beauty of observation and the ache of watching life unfold just beyond reach “A friend of mine described it as a yearn-fest,” Hemingway laughs. “Which I think is really funny, but it’s fitting as well, because in a lot of these songs there’s definitely a yearning for something.”
Vinyl LP black / Indies red & orange
Tracklist:
01. Wings of Desire
02. This City's Tryna Break My Heart
03. Desiree
04. Promises (feat. Georgia Gets By)
05. (To Be) Without You
06. 6th April '13
07. Long Distance Lover
08. If Love Is A Winter's Day
09. Oh, My Albertine (feat. Vera Ellen)
10. No Future No Future No Future
Hemi Hemingway (Waitaha, Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Mutunga) announces his new album Wings of Desire, out February 20 via PNKSLM Recordings, and shares luminous new single ‘Oh, My Albertine (feat. Vera Ellen)’, out now.
‘Oh My Albertine’ was inspired by Albertine Sarrazzin’s novel Astragal, a story of a young woman breaking out of prison to reunite with her love. Channelling themes of frustration and loneliness, Hemingway says he connected deeply with the book while “waiting for the future to happen to me.”
On Vera’s performance, he adds, “I sent it to Vera and we talked about her harnessing Jonnine Standish of HTRK (à la ‘I Know A Girl Called Jonny’ by Rowland S. Howard), but what she brought far exceeded what I could have ever envisioned.” The result is a steady, considered duet in 3/4 time with a deliberate sparseness culminating in a cathartic instrumental outro which brings the track to an emotive close.
Wings of Desire, the follow-up to Hemingway’s acclaimed 2023 debut Strangers Again, is a ten-track album written during a turbulent period in his life, that captures the raw emotion and reflection of that time. Relocating from the UK back to Aotearoa in 2022 and at the end of a long-term relationship, Hemingway found himself disconnected from his desires, his identity and the people around him. These experiences poured into what has become his most expansive and euphoric era of music to date.
The title track and New Zealand Alternative Radio chart topper ‘Wings of Desire’ opens the album with the lyric “I wanna live on the wings of desire”, a reference to the 1987 Wim Wenders classic film, about the angel who gives up his wings for a chance at the human experience of love. This immediately sets the tone for the album’s recurring themes of longing, transformation and renewal.
Like Berlin in Wenders’ classic film, Wings of Desire exists in a world of its own, filled with the beauty of observation and the ache of watching life unfold just beyond reach “A friend of mine described it as a yearn-fest,” Hemingway laughs. “Which I think is really funny, but it’s fitting as well, because in a lot of these songs there’s definitely a yearning for something.”
Vinyl LP black / Indies red & orange
Tracklist:
01. Wings of Desire
02. This City's Tryna Break My Heart
03. Desiree
04. Promises (feat. Georgia Gets By)
05. (To Be) Without You
06. 6th April '13
07. Long Distance Lover
08. If Love Is A Winter's Day
09. Oh, My Albertine (feat. Vera Ellen)
10. No Future No Future No Future
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