Photo by: Virginie Khateeb

Having unveiled the video for HiRUDiN album cut “I Am Not Waiting” last month, Austra (aka Katie Austra Stelmanis) is pleased to share a remix of the track by German producer Claptone, who layer bouncing synths and driving beats to compliment Stelmanis’ powerhouse vocals. Austra and Claptone previously collaborated on his 2018 song “La Esperanza”.

Stelmanis says of the remix:

“My relationship with Claptone has evolved from a no-contact collaboration to a bit of time spent getting to know each other, they’re really fun to work with as I love singing on Eurodance hits and I think their remix is fire.”

Austra worked with Peter Burr on creating new artwork for the Claptone remix and other forthcoming remixes.

Burr said on working with Stelmanis:

“I've been a fan of Katie and her work since we first met in Toronto in 2005 so it was exciting to have a chance to think about our collaborative energy for this album. At the moment, living in a complicated quarantine surrounded by invisible (and not-so-invisible) plagues upon us, fragmentation is palpable: a splintering of social ties, of nature's capacity to regenerate, of something vague that once felt stable and now feels unreal...... All of these things hover between us and within us.  I like how the image of HiRUDiN and the chaos energy of ever-flowing blood resonates at this moment. Here we embrace that flow.”

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.




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