Singer/songwriter/producer Geoffrey O’Connor set my radar beeping with his release last month ‘For As Long As I Remember’, the reflective and delicate track featuring the dulcet vocals of Jonnine from the band HTRK as a duet. He has now returned with another blissful sunlit escapade, ‘What A Scene’, this time with Melbourne artist Sui Zhen stepping up to provide the most velvety vocals in another sparkling duet.
‘What A Scene’ glides with a shimmering aura: a sixties cocktail bar sparkle with a haunting and melodic refrain. The vocal interplay is cool and louche, restrained, almost whispered and yet infused with feeling and a sense of timelessness. There is an air of enigma and mystery – the opening synth wash that morphs into a driving rhythm and a lilting, tripping piano riff. The lyrics are haunting – what a scene, the naked dead actors on your laptop screen, what a scene.
O’Connor wrote and directed the equally enigmatic video: suffused in a late afternoon sunshine glow and filled with mystery as O’Connor and Zhen play DJs in a moody studio singing feeling love as strange signs are sent out to the universe. O’Connor says of the collaboration, the track and the video:
Becky [Sui Zhen] has been one of my favourite artists of all time for a long time and I’m so happy we could sing this duet together. I’ve spent a lot of my life falling in and out of sleep to the sound of late night radio hosts talking about things I don’t understand. The video concept is inspired by this and the dream of hosting my own radio show, which seems impossible with my current sleeping pattern and personality.
There’s a Lynchian mystique that is faintly unsettling but ultimately mesmerising.
‘What A Scene’ is out through Chapter Music and available to stream and download here. The single is off O’Connor’s forthcoming album which can be pre-ordered/pre-saved through the link below (where you can also down load this and O’Connor’s earlier singles:
Geoffrey O’Connor is no slouch. He has produced albums for Sarah Mary Chadwick, June Jones, Summer Flake and others, appeared on records by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Donny Benet, been remixed by Chet Faker, and was a member of Melbourne psych pop band Montero and Crayon Fields. O’Connor is also a video director, making videos for RVG, Bag Raiders, Sarah Mary Chadwick and many more.
