Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle have shared a new music video for their single “Anhedonia.” Cressa Beer helped to create the video, working as the producer and stop motion editor.

“The core idea of the video came from an artist and mutual friend that Chelsea and I both love – Jess Schnabel – who created a ‘grief moth’ inspired by real moths that drink the tears of sleeping birds,” Beer said in a press statement. “It’s an idea I’ve wanted to animate for a while. So, that became the backbone of the project: the lifecycle of a moth literally born from overwhelming sadness.”

The video features Wolfe and Rundle singing amidst blue hues, a stop-motion mannequin crying into her palms as flowers slowly wilt around her. Butterfly wings flash behind her, black clay encasing her. She soon turns into a caterpillar, then a cocoon before bursting out as a white moth.

“From there, the video grew into a reflection of what I was experiencing during quarantine, as I found myself confronting my own grief and deeply rooted trauma,” Beer continued in the statement. “I suffer from PTSD that envelops me like a black void. I wanted to visually articulate how that feels, as well as feelings like disassociation and loneliness; the way that trauma can physically alter your body and mentally reshape the world around you.  But still, the moth can fight its way out, can fly, can follow the light; just like the comfort in the final verse of the song, I wanted to still show that healing is possible.”

Wolfe and Rundle released the single in late January, with Wolfe stating she first started writing the single during the summer of 2019. Both singers also participated in the Sargent House charity raffle last year, which raised proceeds for various organizations supporting the Black Lives Matter movement last June.

Wolfe formed the band Mrs. Piss alongside Jess Gowrie last year, the two releasing their debut album Self-Surgery in May. The album had been led by the single “Downer Surrounded by Uppers.” Wolfe also appeared on Jesse Draxler’s track “Valerian” alongside Ben Chisholm.

Rundle has teamed up with Thou for a series of songs, culminating in the album May Our Chambers Be Full and EP The Helm of Sorrow. The collections included the singles “The Valley” and “Hollywood.”

Photo credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva