Hermitude Teams Up with Kimbra for the Personal Single “Janela”

The song will appear on the duo’s deluxe edition of their 2019 LP Pollyanarchy.
Hermitude Teams Up with Kimbra for the Personal Single “Janela”

The song will appear on the duo’s deluxe edition of their 2019 LP Pollyanarchy.

Words: Jesse Cline

Photo by Claire Nakazawa

October 08, 2020

With their sixth studio album Pollyanarchy turning one year old last month, Australian electronic duo Hermitude vowed to give the LP the deluxe reissue treatment, targeting November 13 as the date they plan on re-releasing the record out into the world. The track list for the project promises yet-unheard music from El Gusto and Luke Dubs, including a collaboration with vocalist and Australasian peer Kimbra.

Today we’re getting an early listen of the track, “Janela,” a more R&B-indebted affair than much of Pollyanarchy. “‘Janela’ is a tune we had written at our studio in Sydney, but could never find the right vocalist,” the duo shares before owing the success of the song to its guest. “It wasn’t until we went to Brooklyn last year to take part in an APRA writing camp that ‘Janela’ came into its own, thanks to the prowess of Kimbra. We played her the beat and she instantly gelled with it, humming melodies along with it straight away. I’d say within thirty minutes she had a guide vocal track, and then she went out into the sunshine in the backyard and wrote all the lyrics pretty much while we had lunch. 

“She came back in and told us the idea,” they continue, “which we loved, and she just laid it down, stacking harmonies on harmonies and beautiful interweaving melodies that just seemed to fall out of her. It was quite a personal song for her, and we could tell by the emotion she was putting into the microphone. We felt like we got something really special that day.” 

You can preview the track below, stream it here,and pre-order the Pollyanarchy deluxe edition here.