The New Zealand’s gothic-folk art pop songstress, Aldous Harding, turned 32 today. Been a big fan since the first time I saw her at Laneway Festival in Singapore in 2018. Saw her for the second time in Sydney, right before the pandemic.
Born Hannah Sian Topp, Aldous Harding, as what 4AD wrote on her profile, is an artist of rare calibre, does more than sing: she conjures a singular intensity. Her body and face a weapon of theatre, Harding dances with steeled fervor, baring her teeth like a Buranku puppet’s gnashing grin.
Harding comes from a musical family in Lyttelton, New Zealand; her mother is folk singer Lorina Harding. She was discovered while busking on a street by fellow musician Anika Moa.
Her latest album, Warm Chris, garnered much critical acclaim. Pitchfork says, “Warm Chris, is a record of the portable solitude that Garielle Lutz writes about: It is opaque, surreal, and above all, lonely.”
As of 2020, Harding is based in Cardiff, Wales, where she had previously lived with partner and collaborator H. Hawkins.
The video here, “Fever”, taken from Warm Chris.
Happy birthday, ms Harding! Stay peculiarly enigmatic!
• Read also ALDOUS HARDING: DAMN.
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Featured image via Wegow.
