The quirky folk singer, Devendra Banhart has just released the new single “Für Hildegard von Bingen” off his upcoming album Mala. Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th century catholic saint who was also a writer, composer, and theologist. According to Banhart on the song, “In my head there was this little movie, an alternative universe, I guess– Hildegard is sequestered in her cloister, and one day she gets a VHS cassette and it’s the prime era of the MTV VJ, and she just goes wild. ‘That’s it for me,’ she says. ‘That’s how I’m going to get my message across.’ So she escapes the cloister…and becomes a VJ.”
The album title Mala was inspired by Banhart’s fiancee and is an Eastern European term for “sweetie pie.” Mala will be released on March 12th via Nonesuch.
Check out the single (via p4k) and tracklist below.
Mala:
01 Golden Girls
02 Daniel
03 Für Hildegard von Bingen
04 Never Seen Such Good Things
05 Mi Negrita
06 Your Fine Petting Duck
07 The Ballad of Keenan Milton
08 A Gain
09 Won’t You Come Over?
10 Cristobal
11 Hatchet Wound
12 Mala
13 Won’t You Come Home
14 Taurobolium
