Christen Lien Releases Video for New Single, THE ESCAPE, 5/2

Musician and Performing Artist Christen Lien releases the video for new single "The Escape" on May 2nd. This haunting track is punctuated by minimalist visuals and becomes the first video from her highly anticipated album ELPIS.

"The Escape" video is over 8-minutes long and was shot with authenticity in mind. A difficult task, Christen Lien wanted to show her raw talent in a one-take performance piece. In the song, Christen uses guitar effect pedals and live looping in the composition. Her musical, performance, and technical skills are highlighted by the director's ability to capture her unpredictable body movements with a handheld camera.

Please view the video HERE. Password: lien.

Christen Lien is a classical fusion artist and multi-instrumentalist who creates an innovative brand of musical storytelling. She has branched out to bend the classical genre by integrating innovative technology and collaborating with artists and musicians from many mediums. Christen has performed events hosted by the Obama White House, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Forbes, Google, Nexus Global, Summit Series, MIT, the United States Institute of Peace, and many other institutions. She inspires fans around the globe.

ELPIS is a concept album of instrumental songs accompanied by poetry and imagery. Elpis, a character from Greek mythology, is the goddess of hope and one of the original evils created by Zeus, trapped in Pandora's Box. Christen's album ELPIS has an accompanied narrative story that picks up where Greek mythology left off and shares Elpis' reflections from her imprisonment inside Pandora's Box, her long-awaited escape and journey into this modern world, and the anticipated reunion of Elpis with the evils and spites of humanity who were originally in Pandora's Box with her.

"The Escape" is the crux of the story behind the ELPIS project, and is the soundtrack to when Elpis escapes from Pandora's Box, the prison she has lived inside her entire life. After being trapped for thousands of years, it is Elpis' frustration, anger and intelligence that helps her figure out how to escape. "The Escape" has the persistence and forward-moving energy that is needed for one to escape their prisons, whether real or perceived, material or psychological, externally imposed or of one's own making," said Christen Lien. "There are many types of prisons besides the kind that the Department of Corrections and privatized prisons provide, and there are many aspects to our lives that we want or need to escape from in our pursuit of freedom. What is the energy needed to escape? How strong do we need to be in order to push through barriers that seem impossible to overcome? "The Escape" is a sonic exploration of this kind of power and force in the world."

"The Escape" is the album's crescendo and lead single due to the passion and energy Christen brings to her live performance of the track. From performances at venues such as the House of Blues and Zanzibar, or museums such as the de Young and the Detroit Institute of Arts, audiences eagerly cling to the stories Christen deftly tells through her emotive compositions and skilled instrumentation.