By Jordyn Christensen
Happy Magazine | July 10, 2014
Fresh out of Christchurch Aldous Harding, aka Hannah Harding is creating something different. Amongst all the music out there currently demanding your attention, she’s creating something unassuming and beautifully composed. After recently having looked at Evan Sinton, fellow New Zealander, I’m beginning to think there’s something in the water over there.
Interesting story though, which gained her national attention: Harding was busking on the streets trying to raise funds for a ticket to Anika Moa’s concert, only to later be opening for her. Its a very specific kind of music. It’s a coffee shop on a rainy day or one of those pop up wine bars on a Sunday night with some old friends…you know, oh so soothing. Credited with influences such as Joanna Newsom and Karen Dalton, its an Angus & Julia Stone feeling cross maybe a James Vincent McMorrow or an Asgeir, it’s all about the soul reaching emotion, dark and mesmerizing.
Her self titled debut album will be released on July 25th in Australia through Spunk Records, after a small promo tour up and down the East coast of Australia, accompanied by Simon Gregory (who plays guitar and sings back up, live and on the album) performing free gigs in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne as well as having toured through her native New Zealand in April and May.
Harding has also released her video clip for the song Hunter in April this year as well. The muted tones, slow motion shots and clips hazy with cigarette smoke perfectly capture what Harding and her new album are about, awfully romantic, in a self destructive kind of way. Of her material she comments ‘the songs are mostly based on a feeling, and a story is built up around that’, and you can feel every second of it.
Featured Image: Aldous Harding (Photo: Sabin Holloway)