This is the latest single from Toronto-based songwriter, musician, producer, and radio host Lily Frost. Opening with dramatic instrumentation, ‘Nightbird-Lilith’ grows in lush, musical layers of harp, accordion, and percussion. Over this soundscape, Frost’s vocal is beautifully delivered, in turns dreamily soft and restrained and then ringing out with exclamation and strength. Ethereal backing elevates her voice further, and Frost’s poetic lyrics have the power of myth: “Siren singing out to be heard // Siren spirit, fire, burns // Heroine of the fertile land … And if the sky’s falling on you // You can take refuge in the night // ‘Cause she lives within you.”
Frost focuses on the sacred feminine and the truth to be found within us. She explains: “‘Nightbird-Lilith’ was born out of deep study, spending a year immersed in the history of pre-Christian goddesses from pagan Celtic and Greco-Roman traditions. I found myself wholly drawn to the exploration of the feminine divine. I wanted to resurrect the myth of Lilith – now a feminist icon (who refused to lie beneath Adam), and the woman who came before Eve – and bring her voice to life in this song.”
With atmospheric lighting and a series of carefully-chosen images, the video reinforces the theme of the divine feminine. Across cultures and history, both the moon and forest have been used as feminine symbols, reflecting ideas such as nature, fertility, transformation and change, emotional balance, and inner wisdom. After an instrumental pause, Frost raises her arms like angelic wings as the music is reintroduced and the nightbird takes flight. Like the song, the video is immersive and artfully created.
Lily Frost has released a series of well-regarded solo albums after previously touring with her band The Colorifics and working as a poet. She’s known for her cinematic compositions and atmospheric, sensitive songs, a number of which have been used in film and television. Be absorbed in this thoughtful, ethereal exploration of an intriguing subject.
