WL//WH Video Of The Day: GLORIA DE OLIVEIRA “Fading Faces” (Official Music Video)

Video Of The Day GLORIA DE OLIVEIRA

Augmented by a fresh and visceral inspirational approach, both sonically and thematically, to songwriting, together with her usual emotional, expressive clarity, the Hamburg-based German/Brazilian multidisciplinary artist, musician, and filmmaker Gloria de Oliveira unveils the first excerpt, “Fading Faces,” taken from her forthcoming studio album, “The Lying Swans,” to set the tone for a renewed artistic endeavour, enhanced by Randall Dunn, who’s previously worked with Anna von Hausswolff, Marissa Nadler, and Zola Jesus, at the production helm.

This is not only the first single, but also the very first piece of music I wrote when I started working on the album. It was also the first song that Randall Dunn and I later recorded together in Iceland. In many ways, it’s the reason the album even exists – ‘Fading Faces’ required me to allow myself this degree of vulnerability that permeates ‘The Lying Swans.’Gloria says

Magnified by the transcendental atmospherics of her 2022 collaboration with David Lynch associated Dean Hurley via Sacred Bones Records, “Fading Faces,” featuring Gloria’s vocals, synths, and piano accompanied by the drums of Matt Chamberlain, the segulharpa and synthesizers of Úlfur Hansson, and the electric, acoustic & 12 string guitar of Lennard Zander, sits somewhere between dream pop, gothic romanticism and cinematic art rock.

A beautiful emotional immersion, where ‘lovers dissolve into memory, distant calls are answered by unexpected presences, and the sea becomes a passage between old wounds and new beginnings’, “Fading Faces” layered with timeless acoustic dream-folk suggestions, tenderly twists and tugs to ignite stumbling, thumping drum beats to shuffle over deep trembling, gloomy bass throbs, whilst graceful, vulnerable layers of ethereal female vocals, delicately soar with melancholy and fear before richly saturating with hope and surrender, into a magical, contemplative ambiance, made of shivering orchestral glows, tinkling plucked strings, and sad, spritely melodies.

The accompanying music video, directed by de Oliveira herself and filmed by Lennard Zander, depicts the artist stranded like a Pre-Raphaelite water nymph on a mystical Brazilian beach, between black cliffs and pink sand.

Gloria, dressed in a teal blue color that matches the ocean, delivers a soul-stirring performance of “Fading Faces” against a majestic, rugged shoreline. As the sun moves from the horizon, transformative rays stream into Gloria as she gently steps into the cleansing waters of the sea with an open heart. The coloring, contrasts, and thought-provoking use of light and shadow combine with the symbolic elements of nature and Gloria’s earnest choreography to heighten the vibrant depth and texture of the soundtrack into a timeless transcendence.

Gloria de Oliveira‘s forthcoming studio album, “The Lying Swans,” is slated for release on October 30th via La Double Vie / Cargo Records.

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