Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (Liturgy), courtesy of Promo Jukebox / Marilu Donovn & Adam Markiewicz (LEYA), photo by Erin Krimian
Brooklyn black metal group Liturgy and NYC avant-pop duo LEYA have joined forces for a new collaborative single, “Antigone”.
The track showcases the ambitious experimentation of both projects. The genre-blending black metal present on Liturgy’s 2019 album H.A.Q.Q. returns to provide a backdrop, accentuating the yearning vocals of LEYA’s Adam Markiewicz.
“Originally its purpose was as a single to promote a tour we were going to do together last April that ended up getting cancelled,” Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix told Paper magazine of the song’s origins. “The track had a different name originally, and we would have put it out in early April, but held off, because we were hoping to postpone the tour and just use it for the later dates. When it became clear in April/ May we simply had to cancel it outright, we decided to just put up the track — and we’d gotten as far as uploading it to be released before I came out as trans.”
According to LEYA, the track’s name was changed to “Antigone”, “corresponding with [Hunt-Hendrix’s] transition.”
“We are overjoyed to see her moving forward in her existence and re-naming of the track obviously celebrates this in part,” LEYA added.
Hunt-Hendrix continued: “The actual decision to decisively come out was really sudden, and involved a week of basically sobbing every day during the lockdown — though I’d been building towards it for a long time. I was feeling unsteady about releasing the song at all after that, but we decided to go through with it though it became important to me to change its name, which was sort of a surrogate for me changing my own name (my name was and is still Hunter).”
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The song also comes after a long string of creative pursuits for Hunt-Hendrix and Liturgy. In addition to releasing H.A.Q.Q., Hunt-Hendrix’s composed and performed her metaphysical opera, Origin of the Alimonies, hosted an art exhibition, and has given lectures on her philosophies — many of which permeate the ideas and lyrics behind Liturgy.
You can stream “Antigone” below.
