AUSTRA Shares New Single "Mountain Baby" ft. Cecile Believe + A Toronto Children's Choir

SHARES NEW SINGLE “MOUNTAIN BABY” FT. CECILE BELIEVE, ALSO FEATURING A TORONTO CHILDREN’S CHOIR Live dates in May postponed, new dates confirmed New album HiRUDiN out May 1st

Photo credit: Virginie Khateeb Austra - a.k.a. musician, producer, songwriter and performer Katie Austra Stelmanis - will release her fourth album HiRUDiN on May 1st via Domino, and today she shares the third single off of the forthcoming release. Oddball pop masterpiece “Mountain Baby” follows previous tracks “Risk It” and “Anywayz,” and features Montreal’s Cecile Believe (the “voice” and co-writer on SOPHIE’s Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides), as well as a children’s choir from Wilkinson Public School in Toronto, where Stelmanis’ mother is a teacher. The dichotomy of the choir and Cecile’s vocals reflect the song’s intentions.  Watch the video for “Mountain Baby” HERE Stream “Mountain Baby” HERE Austra explains further: “Mountain Baby explores the different stages of a breakup. Surrounded by a feeling of unknown and grounded only by a hidden sense to move forward (the choir), we’re also reminded through flashbacks of both the uncertainty and resistance we experienced in the relationship (katie), as well as the pure, unbridled joy (cecile).” Austra’s May 2020 tour dates have been postponed to the same or an alternative venue, with the exception of London, Paris, and Madrid, which have been cancelled. New dates have been added for those cities (listed below). In addition, a fully expanded tour will be announced and on sale next month. While Austra’s third album, 2017’s Future Politics, was concerned with the external power structures that shape society, HiRUDiN points inward, tracing a deeply personal journey towards regeneration, dealing with the fallout of toxic relationships, queer shame, and insecurity along the way. Named after the peptide released by leeches that is the most potent anticoagulant in the world, HiRUDiN is about the importance of healing the self, letting go of harmful influences, and finding the power to rebuild. Working between London, Spain and Toronto in early 2018, Stelmanis, who has been the sole producer for Austra in the past, was joined by co-producers Rodaidh McDonald and Joseph Shabason for the first time. The resulting album reaps the rewards of Austra’s leap into the unknown, in her most introspective yet inventive statement to date. HiRUDiN is available to pre-order on Mart-exclusive LP (signed ‘moss’ colored vinyl with fold out poster), deluxe LP, standard LP, CD and digitally.  Pre-order: Dom Mart | Digital Album artwork

Being in a toxic relationship can sometimes feel like being lost in a maze. Every attempt to turn a corner lands you back where you started. HiRUDiN is a bold acknowledgement of such patterns of behaviour and a testament to the power of breaking them. Katie Austra Stelmanis has been better known by her middle name for three albums, ten years, and countless tours. She wrote, produced, and performed all her own records, occasionally sharing the spotlight with a band to tour live. From the outside, things were going really well for a while: she built a devoted fan base and sold out shows all around the world. However, on the inside, Stelmanis was beginning to feel stagnant and uninspired. “I was losing faith in my own ideas,” she explains. Without realising it, she’d got caught up in a toxic relationship that was tearing her apart. It wasn’t until Stelmanis was ready to face her insecurities that she was able to see a way forward: “My creative and personal relationships were heavily intertwined, and I knew the only answer was to part ways with all of the people and comforts that I’d known for the better part of a decade and start again.” Alongside making changes in her personal life, HiRUDiN saw Austra taking an entirely different, free-spirited approach to making a record.  Stelmanis took a collage approach to sampling, arranging, writing and producing the songs on the record. Also, seeking out all new collaborators, she booked three days of sessions in Toronto with improv musicians she’d never met before. They included two thirds of contemporary classical improv group c_RL, the cellist and kamanche duo Kamancello, kulintang ensemble Pantayo, and a children’s choir. Additionally, Stelmanis brought in David Wrench and Heba Kadry to mix and master the record respectively.  Tour Dates: 9/16/20 - Toronto, ON @ Great Hall 10/9/20 - Brooklyn, NY @ The Sultan Room 11/4/20 - Warsaw, PL @ Niebo 11/12/20 - Vienna, AT @ Flex 11/15/20 - Berlin, DE @ Metropol 11/26/20 - Paris, FR @ La Machine Du Moulin Rouge 12/2/20 - London, UK @ EartH 12/4/20 - Barcelona, ES @ Mil.Leni Festival 12/5/20 - Madrid, ES @ Cool Austra Online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram