Emmy the Great has released her latest single “Change-E,” alongside an accompanying music video for the track. The music video features Chinese watercolor paintings with animated movements spliced with videos of Emmy the Great performing. Renee Zhan animated the watercolor, while Mona Chalabi worked on the storyboard, Armiliah Aripin edited and Jess Romain produced for the music video. The track comes off her upcoming album, April /月音, which is planned for release next week on October 9.
“It begins with this,” Emmy the Great said in a press release. “Change-E, the wife of the tyrant Hou Yi, drinks the elixir of immortality to save China from his eternal reign. She ascends to the moon, and lives there with the Jade Rabbit, its original inhabitant. In Mid-Autumn, we celebrate Change-E’s sacrifice with a festival of lanterns and lights. Many centuries later, NASA tells the moon-bound Apollo 11 astronauts to look out for the Chinese queen and her rabbit. Michael Collins replies, ‘We’ll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.’”
Emmy the Great sings her tale as she plays the piano, her soothing voice dancing over the sweet strums. The vibrant watercolors highlight Emmy the Great’s tale, pictures of couples in China occasionally popping up between the animated watercolors. A shot of the ocean sitting nearly still cuts through before switching to Emmy the Great playing. Fish and pearls are displayed as she talks about the moon queen.
“I wanted to tell the story of the moon goddess as I heard it as a child,” Emmy the Great said in a press statement. “It’s a lesser known version of the famous legend (which forms the centrepiece of Mid-Autumn celebrations), and all the more evocative because Chang-E’s destiny is decided by an act of defiance.”
Emmy the Great explained she had started on her fourth album, April /月音, during the Mid-Autumn festival, returning to Hong Kong from New York to move there permanently. Inspired by the events, she set to work on the album, having it display the change she found in Hong Kong upon returning to the city.
“Change-E” follows the release of “Dandelions/Liminal” for the upcoming April /月音. The upcoming album follows her 2016 album, Second Love. The two recent tracks follow her last single, that had also been released in 2016, “Rapids.”
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