Upcoming singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brigitte Bardini has today announced her wistful new single “Heartbreaker “, a hypothetical journey into the terrifying possibility of losing a loved one. “Heartbreaker” is also accompanied by a visually stunning, totally dreamy video, directed by the inimitable WILK (Holy Holy, Olympia, Sarah Blasko). “Heartbreaker “is the third taste of the self-produced forthcoming debut album from Brigitte Bardini, “Stellar Lights”, set for release on August 30.
“Heartbreaker” is lush and sprawling, just like previous singles “Aphrodite” and “Wild Ride”, but is also quite an upbeat offering from Brigitte, showcasing a diversity and artistic maturity beyond her years. Taking inspiration from iconic artists such as PJ Harvey, Thom Yorke and sonic masters Air, “Heartbreaker” pulses and pulls, pairing soft, ever-present synths with sharp beatmaking and Brigitte’s idiosyncratic vocal. Reflecting on the inspiration behind the track, Brigitte says, , “Heartbreaker is about having something very special in your life and exploring that hypothetical situation in your mind that you might lose that thing. A lyric like ‘I don’t want to lose my future to my past’ really captures that anxiety of lingering on past events and catastrophising about future events, and just trying to do my best to live in the moment.”
The video for “Heartbreaker” takes the sonic atmosphere that Brigitte has created and builds an entire visual world around it, one which glows in shades evocative of a dream-like world. Explaining the meaning of the creative choices behind the video, Brigitte reflects, “Wilk made this storyboard for the video within the world of the album which felt like the most natural approach to the clip… The video takes on an approach that pulls from the way we remember our dreams, having that non-linear, otherworldly feeling that resembles reality with an obscured view.”
“Heartbreaker” is just a taste of the depth and intricacy presented on “Stellar Lights”. Self-written and self-produced, excluding six tracks that were co-produced with Adam Calaitzis at Toyland Studios in Melbourne, “Stellar Lights” is a truly impressive debut from Brigitte, and demonstrates a musical understanding that is sure to impress. Gentle, inviting and engaging arrangements of synths, throbbing percussion and whimsical vocal melodies abound – at its heart, ” Stellar Lights” is a beautiful mystery. Chords change like colours in the evening sky and voices whisper just beyond the reach of meaning. Reflecting on the inspiration behind Stellar Lights, Brigitte explains, “Stellar Lights is mainly themed around embracing life. While being coming-of-age, it focuses on life’s fragilities, reflecting upon and learning from every moment and moving forward. I feel that I took this approach to my writing for this album when I experienced a very vivid apocalyptic dream that felt like it woke me up to how fragile life is and how advantageous it is to embrace all of its elements with as little judgement as possible. The words chosen for the title, ‘Stellar Lights’ are very much inspired by this apocalyptic dream, where shooting stars were colliding and meteors falling to earth as I was watching from a courtyard at night.”
With an entire debut album already on the way, it’s exciting to think what might be next for this young artist. Musing over the possibilities, Brigitte says, “Once Stellar Lights is released I feel like there will be vast space for exploration. I’ll have a chance to focus more solely on live performance and having shared experiences with an audience will be extremely special. It’ll also allow for exploration in how I approach my writing and whether the music changes in nature and/or soundscape depending on what will pique my interests at that time.