“Playing Dead” fixates on nature’s sentience to startling effect.

Ornate folk-pop singer-songwriter Hannah Busse’s latest single, “Playing Dead,” is a classically-informed stunner. Pared down to a rolling piano figure, beautifully layered vocal tracks, and enriched by soft production textures, Busse burrows into a warm composition that evokes a sense of wide-eyed wonder. “Playing Dead” arrives roughly seven years after Busse’s 2017 debut EP, Underneath Our Surface, and marks a noticeable step forward for the Madison-based songwriter. 

When Busse was writing “Playing Dead,” she enlisted the talents of Netherlands-based lyricist Donna Devine following a fateful virtual meeting through the online songwriting site fawm.org. After first collaborating in 2022 on the one-off track “I Want To Go Back,” the two decided to continue working together. Soon after “I Want To Go Back” was completed, Devine had turned over a new lyric set to Busse for what would become “Playing Dead.” 

Busse detailed the events that followed in an email to Tone Madison: 

While I enjoyed reading the lyric, nothing immediately came to mind for the music. However, one morning two months later, I sat down at the piano with the lyric, and this ethereal, fanciful music started pouring out of me. 

I’m a singer-songwriter at heart, but I have strong roots in classical music, which I feel are evident in this track. The song begins with a densely-repeating ostinato figure in the piano, evoking a feeling of fantasy and mystery over which the sung melody rests and dances. In the bridge, all the accompaniment’s movement comes for a time to a standstill, underscoring the lyric “And if it should seem that I’m still as a stone / While a world in confusion hangs by a thread.” The music then picks back up like a spinning wheel beginning to turn, weaving the tapestry spoken of in the lyrics.

When it comes to the inspiration behind the lyrics, Devine notes that her attention was caught by a short Norbert Mayer poem contained in Stephen Harrod Buhner’s notable 2002 work, The Lost Language Of Plants. Busse’s inordinately tender composition and Devine’s lyrical clarity work in tandem to focus on the sentience inherent in nature, which extends far beyond the scope of humans and animals. “I want to learn what mountains dream,” belts Busse in the song’s opening line, as she sets up the narrative dynamic with aplomb before plumbing the depths of its intricacy. “Now caught in the tapestry / Nature has sewn / I know rocks in my garden / Have lives of their own / And like them / I am just playing dead,” goes the hook that doubles as the song’s closer, making the narrative intent painstakingly clear.
 
Leading up to the song’s release, Busse reached out to Madison-based visual artist Andrea Ebley to create a visual accompaniment. “I was captivated by Donna’s lyrics and Hannah’s musical interpretation of them, and was honored to be a part of something so beautiful, both in form and concept,” says Ebley. “I knew I wanted to create a visual rife with detail and rich in color, that would help flesh out the imagery of the words and music, bringing them even more to life, while focusing on elements of nature perceived as non-sentient (no humans or animals),” she continues. “I’m incredibly proud of this collaboration and was so delighted to be a part of it, and to work with such talented and grounded artists was a true joy.” 

Ebley’s efforts are apparent in a video that centers on a digital tapestry presented as a slow-panning scroll, teeming with mossy greens, watery blues, and earthy browns. The visuals act as a nice complement to an intentionally delicate song that encourages listeners to contend with their place in the world on micro and macro levels. Busse, Devine, and Ebley’s work here inspires and deserves rumination. And it acts as a call to aspire towards leaving the world we inhabit in better condition than it was when it became our inheritance.

Busse will be performing at Sojourner House with Chris “Sandman” Sand on Tuesday, February 27. The suggested donation for the show is $15, and spots will be limited to the first 40 confirmed attendees. Busse will then perform on Tuesday, March 19, at the Sun Prairie Library’s free Singer/Songwriter series with Luke McGovern.