Haunted: New Official Videoclip and Locations / Photoshoot

MP3 of this new version free for patrons at https://patreon.com/yidneth

You know that there are places you’d better not roam alone in. You can feel that weird sensation that alerts you. What if the ghost in a haunted place is the place itself? Cross the fence and enter into the desolate feelings of an abandoned house. Places are not haunted by ghosts but by desolation.

I have not been much around these last few weeks because I was working on this music video. It took a lot of work and I battled with my old computer, but finally it is here, and right for Samhain/Halloween, though It stays as an official video for my original song Haunted remixed with new cello, vocals, and instruments and with a video filmed throughout this year.

Haunted is in fact one of my favourite songs of mine, but with its weird chord progressions and dark tone it was never one of my popular ones… still it’s often on my performing set lists because It is one of the poems I’m more proud of and the whole theme works as a metaphor of desolation and abandonment. It’s the house itself singing, not a ghost. Yidneth the female character of my story that usually appears in the different CDs sometimes dreams she is a ghost… and she wanders surrounded by moths… She is sometimes afraid to fall sleep and become a ghost.

The vocals have several layers, one is my pure voice untreated, the other two me singing with vocal fry as a creaking door and another layer whispering, so it feels I’m dubbing over the abode’s voice.

The House would work itself as a big “Underliving” something living but not alive. This term and concept gave name to my second album theunderliving.com and keeps on being recurrent throughout my entire works.

This is a new videoclip for my song Haunted, the original version was released in Ancient Shadows (2006) but this is a new video and version was recorded this year (2018) and features a longer cello line and many more backing vocals as well as a a new videoclip filmed on an abandoned Palace on top of a Hill, an abandoned village and other locations. I premier it as fitting for Samhain as the veil is thin but remains as an official music video for the song. This new version slightly different than the one that was officially published will be listed free for patrons at patreon.com/yidneth and also here on Dsound in forthcoming for my Steemit followers. Here so far the music video.

Haunted (Lyrics / Poem)

My crumbling walls groan and complain
the ivory gleam is now turned to grey
no steps on my dusty floors
No one sleeps in the musty bed
I feel alone and desolate
Deprived of the splendour of the elder days
my baleful halls… an ode to decay
the piano still plays itself
that off-key melody
that makes the shadows dance and boil
in that frantic ball
Shelter of the nameless gods and ghostly shades
the wild moan of wind warns I shall not be dwelt in…
…in the starless… dismal nights…
… I am… haunted
The garden grows wild
the ivy crawled and hid all the gates
and pallid blooms of rancid scent
took place when roses withered away
The abyss of nightmare lurks in each hole
and things unseen behind every door
but I cannot help but miss
the laughter of children
oh come again… cross the fence… to play with me
(Hide and seek)
All the yearning sins and secrets I may keep
still invoke and build that hideous fantasy
ah everyone knows… I am… haunted
And centuries run…
this rotten core will never fall down
laid my foundations deep in the ground
Defiant and silent I shall await….
while everyone says…
I am… haunted

Locations: Aizkolegi Palace, Tiermas and Ordesa

Aizkolegi Palace stands on top of a hill, 842 meters high surrounded by lush and dark woods with gnarled trees. It was built over a century ago by Pedro Ciga, last owner of “El Señorío de Bertiz”, the natural Park where it stands now abandoned.

It was built as a second house uphill with amazing views of the surrounding valleys covered in beechwoods. On a clear day you are able to see the sea afar. Pedro installed a telescope on it to “observe and admire the wonders of Nature” but now it’s closed and in ruins.

In his testament it was told it had to be preserved “its way” yet now inhabited, the windows and doors have been closed with planks and only some open windows upstairs offer an uneasy ominous black glimpse of its core. I wonder what’s inside but I can only imagine it. There are several signals that warns of the dangers as the abode has been left to the elements and slowly breaking apart for a long time. Yet still stands, decaying and haunted by its own solitude. Thus it was perfect to portray my little story. The song had already been released on my first album Ancient Shadows, but being one of my favourites I couldn’t help but film a new video and re-record voices, choirs and more instruments in this brand new updated version. The music video was filmed earlier this year before Spring opened its new leaves.

The house must be indeed HAUNTED because we got lost on our way downhill for several miles, had to go uphill again back to it to find our way through the dark woods… very ominous

Additional sequences were filmed a month ago in Tiermas Village, an abandoned town in Tiermas. The scenes at the waterfalls belong to the the Natural Park of Ordesa, the waterfall “Las Gradas” resembles somehow a construction, and the flow of water somehow represents the flow of time.

Of course yet again my obsession for moths… I never miss the chance to film one when the visit me…

And its obsession for a flame… like a ghost to the living… like an empty house for inhabitants

And thus there are moths in this video as there are usually in my drawings and the imagery since Ancient Shadows (my first album) where this song was first included in an older version. Moths and the ghost will reappear again in my third and forthcoming album Fear no More and I took the chance to re-made Haunted to rescue many of the elements that will be recurrent.

Credits

Music and lyrics by Priscilla Hernandez @yidneth
All arrangements, piano, synth, lead and backing vocals by Priscilla Hernandez @yidneth
Cello by Francina Turon and Biel Fiol

Video edit by Priscilla Hernandez
Camera work by @hedac
Special thanks to my friend Naliam who filmed an additional footage of me in Tiermas.

The piano plays itself that off key melody that makes the shadows dance and boil in a franctic ball