10 November 2017 - 0 Comments

Written on the eve of her paternal grandmother's passing, today Estère shares possibly the most personal song of them all off her newly released body of work, My Design Part 1. Watch the official music video, filmed by Zenn Van Zyl, produced by the empress herself and directed by Paascalino Schaller here.

Grandmother was crafted as a tribute to her grandmother and namesake Estère (meaning 'morning star') and recorded in the homely surrounds of Estère's 1940s Wellington villa. It unravels with syncopated rhythms and warm hazes of synthesizer as the words twist around a soaring, unconfined melody.

The production of the video is a story of being in the right place at the right time. Estère's family are from the West African nation of Cameroon, and touring Africa meant she could make a visual connection with her ancestral continent. Estère reflects, "I was in the middle of my 2016 Southern Africa tour when I found out that we had received funding from NZ On Air. I decided right then and there that I wanted to make a video for this song in Africa."

Filmed along the beautiful Cape Town peninsula at Betty's Bay, Estère worked with legendary Author, Woman's Rights Ambassador & UN Representative Sindiwe Magona, who plays her grandmother in the video.

"She had written a book called My Children's Children and it was the sentiment of this song that compelled her to work with us on our video. It was a once in a lifetime experience," she says on collaborating with Magona.

WATCH OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO GRANDMOTHER

To celebrate the recent release of her new mini-album My Design, part one of an interconnected body of work, Estère has announced four New Zealand shows this December. Following a sold out Pro Bono Techno Zonetour in August, Estère will bring the songs of My Design to life, backed by a band of both humans and machines. Full tour dates and information here.

Purchase / stream My Design: 
iTunes /Google Play / Spotify/ Apple Music

My Design is a colourful patchwork of thoughts, feelings and stories, featuring the hypnotic ballad of gamechanger and Bordello resident, Magdelaine Lavirgin (Ambition), the blue screen war of Pro Bono Techno Zone and the conceptualisation of 'control' in her latest single Control Freak. The six track offering is part one in a prolific two-part album My Design, On Others' Lives, due for release in March 2018.

MY DESIGN  NEW ZEALAND RELEASE SHOWS:

Dec 1st - Caroline, Wellington

Dec 2nd - Golden Dawn, Auckland*

Dec 7th - Darkroom, Christchurch

Dec 8th - Morning Magpie, Dunedin

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