Hennessey - "No Transformation"
We’re excited to share the video for “No Transformation” by New York City electro-pop duo Hennessey. The release of the visually stunning video today coincides with the release of their debut self-titled EP on Velvet Elk Records.
The duo of singer-songwriter Leah Hennessey and electronic musician E.J. O'Hara worked with multimedia and installation artist Tony Oursler on the video, and Oursler chose to make Hennessey’s face the fulcrum of the piece. In a way that’s both visually and sonically eerie, the video remains primarily focused on Hennessey with shots of different projected images on her face, including government insignia, ghostly ice caps, and arcane algorithms, as the background shifts from ominous clouds, barren forests, ice blocks, and massive glaciers. Oursler described his interpretation of the song and the inspiration for the video as being rooted in a collective experience in modern day society:
No Transformation is a sweet shout into the void. Something we are all collectively enacting at this very strange moment. Am I melting or the poles? Are we flowers or lab rats? When I listened to the song it seemed to be a movie for the age of surveillance capitalism. To make these pictures all we have to do is figure out where to point the projector.
The song itself has a biting rhythm that sparkles through patient synths and an expressive omnichord. It’s minimalist in nature with subdued instrumentation that allows Hennessey’s powerful voice to anchor the track and remain its linchpin throughout, as she sings thought-provoking lyrics that imagine herself as a taking on characteristics of a flower, a lab rat, and an arrow, before conceding that it’s too late to change. Hennessey described the meaning of “No Transformation” as a sort of mediation on acceptance:
I'm starting by saying I'm too this or too that, repeating these criticisms I have of myself like a mantra, but instead of comforting myself by saying those things aren't true or by trying to become someone else I'm realizing that I can only evolve or even be happy if I start from exactly where I am. I've spent so much of my life tearing myself apart in the hopes that I'll rise from my own ashes and this is me breaking that cycle."
Check out the video below and stream the band’s debut EP on your platform of choice. In celebration of the release of the EP, the band will be live-streaming a special performance on September 12th at The Bowery Electric. Don’t miss it!
