Both leading figures in underground gothic Americana, both parts of the very strong catalog of Sargent House, and both enchanting voices which uncannily match one another, Chelsea Wolfe and Emma Ruth Rundle collaborate on the somber and downbeat new piece, Anhedonia.
The new song was written by Chelsea Wolfe and mixed by Ben Chisholm.
"I wrote Anhedonia after I experienced it during summer of 2019, then tucked the song away and moved forward with my acoustic album and subsequent North American tour," Wolfe explains. "When COVID-19 hit and stay-at-home orders began in 2020, my European tour was canceled and I had to fly home. Restless, I started listening through my archives of unfinished songs and little unused ideas. When I heard Anhedonia again, it hit me how strangely relevant the lyrics felt to current times. I’d been wanting to work on a song with Emma for a long time, so I recorded it and sent it her way. She graciously added her gorgeous vocals and lead guitar, and then Ben mixed it, adding his signature sound landscape as a fortress around the song. As I listened back to the final version, I was finally able to set free those emotions which I couldn’t feel back in 2019. I had worries around releasing the song, not wanting to romanticize the condition of anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure), but I also understood that it could possibly be cathartic for others who are struggling, as it was for me, to sing and dance my way out of a depression."
Rundle comments: "I was moved to tears when she sent me Anhedonia, which made getting through the tracking very emotional and slow on my end. I love the way the guitars I tracked morphed in Ben's mix. The whole song swirls in a poignant eddy of sorrowful sound and still takes a hard swing at my heart hearing it now."
Top photo By Kristin Cofer