Video: Hannah Cohen Shares Lead Single 'Earthstar' From New Album

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Hannah Cohen has announced her fourth full length album, Earthstar Mountain, due March 28, 2025 via Bella Union / Congrats Records.

Produced by Sam Evian at Flying Cloud Recordings and featuring many collaborators such as Sufjan Stevens, Clairo, Liam Kazar, Oliver Hill and Sean Mullins, Earthstar Mountain is a love letter to the Catskills and in the interconnectedness of all things: in her past, present, future and alternative selves, in her friends––here and gone––and in the mountain that peers through her windows. 

The lead single “Earthstar” is available now. On the track, Cohen highlights the risk of love and how you can never really know someone, even those closest to you. The kaleidoscopically serene synths tell us there is a peacefulness, a beauty, in facing this truth. Change is hard, but changing alongside someone is a divine privilege. Cohen went on to note “For me “Earthstar” is about the complexity of connection, the risk and vulnerability of love. The song grapples with the idea that ultimately, we will never completely know someone.”

Since her move to the Catskills in 2018, Hannah Cohen hikes with her rescue dog Jan every day. In the woods, they witness the color of change, the verdant resilience of softness and the necessary cycles of demise and vitality. It’s been five years since her last full length record and in that bubble of time, Cohen has learned the patience of her environment; to stay quiet until the noise starts to make sense. Her new collection of songs, Earthstar Mountain, is a keepsake of Cohen's time in the Catskills, built over the course of 2020-2024, as blurred, shimmering memories come into focus to produce a collage of echoes and sonic souvenirs. 

Hannah Cohen is nestled in the center of a creative community. On one side is Cohen and her partner and collaborator Sam Owens––performing under the moniker Sam Evian––and on the other is their carousel of collaborators and friends. Cohen’s parents reside just down the street, and she sees them almost every day––“unusual, I know but we’re an unusual family” she says. Fittingly, after releasing her 2019 album Welcome Home, Cohen and Owens converted their mid-70s home and barn into a studio and retreat, Flying Cloud Recordings. Between sessions with artists like Big Thief, Cass McCombs, Blonde Redhead, Palehound and Helena Deland, tours with Owens and renovations in their home, and the nurturing of new friendships, Cohen maintained her ritual; she found quiet moments with her guitar, with the mountain as her witness.

Drawing from their shared love of Dusty Springfield, Gal Costa, Minnie Riperton, Ennio Morricone, Neil Young and Sly & The Family Stone, Cohen and Owens began to experiment with arrangements that feel both familiar and entirely new. They welcomed friends to the process––Sufjan Stevens, Sean Mullins, Oliver Hill, Claire Cottrill (Clairo), Liam Kazar and more––and it was the encouragement of those who most inspired her, and the quietude of her beautiful life, that the pieces of Earthstar Mountain started to make sense. 

Earthstar Mountain is an ode to curiosity. It asks what it means to live a life: how do we decide which direction to take? How do we stay there? And what happens when the rug is pulled from under our feet? This indecision is embraced and emphasized, underlined in a wandering doodle. “I’ve always wanted a certain life, but then I also want another kind of life,” she says. “They both hover over me all the time.” There is power and release in this observation: the duality of self, of light and dark, stillness and movement, lovers and strangers. A life exists because these dualities cohabitate––the universe within ourselves and the universe outside. The struggle is where clarity is formed and Cohen, ever-open to the possibilities, invites us to take a walk in the woods with her. Like the 1882 lithograph adorning the cover, there’ll be a beautiful view waiting for you whichever path you choose. 

Photo Credit: Josh Goleman

To post a comment, you must register and login.