Maija Sofia releases dreamlike video for new single 'O Theremin'

The Irish singer-songwriter, Maija Sofia, has released 'O Theremin' as her second single of the year following her cover of 'Wonderful Life'.

Accompanying the new, eerie track is an equally strange and captivating music video directed by M(h)aol's Zoe Greenway.

good morning 🖤 my new song O Theremin is out everywhere now⚡️⚡️⚡️please, enjoy. https://t.co/ftbQYfiKRt

— maija sofia (@maija_sofia) July 28, 2022

The song has a ghostly sigh behind the address to "O Theremin" and switches between the stilting quality of early films to the careful, lingering presentation of tarot cards, and the slowly deteriorating images of the singer herself.

A theremin, in the traditional sense, is an experimental electronic instrument that can be controlled without physical contact from the performer. The odd instrument was originally created by a man of the same name in 1920s Soviet Russia. He was a radio engineer and confounded crowds with the apparent magic of his performances.

In the song, Theremin is the name of a professor that visits the singer in their dreams. (Could it be the professor from so long ago?) Like Peter Pan, Professor Theremin enters through the window and seems to play an almost omnipresent or supernatural role in the singer's mind- "have you," the singer asks, "been listening to all I've been thinking?"

when people ask what music I make from now on the answer will be: mystical bangers. thank you king

— maija sofia (@maija_sofia) July 28, 2022

The song seems to be simultaneously creating a solitary world of bizarre phenomena and begging an answer for the inexplicable.

"But when you/identify/my frequency/pick up the signal, transmit me," she croons, speaking to a loneliness in encountering the ineffable. The idea that there might be no answer in the blue-lit present day to the questions that dog us from the past is haunting. Sofia captures it in 4 minutes and 39 seconds.

Sofia's video seems to draw from this history of illusion, oddity, and performance to construct a wondrous work of art. With creative camera angles, shots and effects the viewer isn't sure if they're witnessing a magic show or the contents of a dream. Throughout the song, we see reflections, distortions, impossibilities, and ghosts flit through the frame.

"I heard people say it was aliens/I've been making this to hold the unexplained things I've seen."

Still from 'O Theremin' music video.

Sofia commented on the song saying "'O Theremin' was written after a prolonged period of isolation. I was living alone all winter in a very big old house so close to the sea that at night it felt like the waves were lapping against its walls.

"I think the loneliness we collectively experienced over the last two years was exacerbated by the strangeness of life on the internet, where everyone is simultaneously watching and being watched. The figure of Leon Theremin intrigued me, as well as inventing the first mass-produced electronic instrument (the strange ghostly theremin) he also invented the first audio surveillance device, which hung on the wall on the US Ambassador’s office in Moscow unnoticed for 7 years in plain sight. I was thinking about haunting, and listening, and what it is to be witnessed, what it is to be invisible, how strange it is to make sounds into an empty room, and how thrilling it can be to finally be heard."

The musician released her first singles in 2018 and has continued to grow into her distinctive sound through continued releases - including her Choice Music Prize nominated album Bath Time in 2019.

Watch the music video for 'O Theremin' below.