Drawing us in with a bass guitar, keys, textured percussion and sitar motifs featuring trap hi-hats and ethereal vocals, HoneyBones open The Call of Baba Yaga with intrigue and the lyrics, “Using the bounds of imagination, sensual realm, an invitation…”. The opus expands as a duet with conceptual prose and a spiritual adjacency.
We love the way the duo brings together electronic textures and organic instrumentation, creating a surrealist and almost psychedelic soundscape that feels ritualistic yet contemporary. Naturally, the track is inspired by the witchy archetype of Baba Yaga.
The ad-libs are cerebral and trippy and in essence, the track unfolds as a message of awakening, intuition and embracing notions of the unseen. For some context, Baba Yaga is a female character from Slavic folklore who has two contrasting roles. In some narratives, she is a repulsive or ferocious-looking old woman who fries and eats children, whilst in others she is depicted as a nice old lady who helps the hero.
The track seems to embrace the contrasting roles and contradictions of Baba Yaga‘s duality. It invites us to move beyond conventional ideas of good and bad, and take a more introspective and holistic approach to what makes us humans and spiritual beings.
For sync placements, we could imagine The Call of Baba Yaga fitting into The Witch, Suspiria, Midsommar, The Green Knight or The Northman. On television, the new Carrie series, American Horror Story: Coven, Penny Dreadful, Nine Perfect Strangers and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina feel like solid fits.
HoneyBones is the creative partnership of Melinda Joy (Too Late and Out of the Blue) and Juro Kosec, whose shared interest in consciousness, spirituality and visual expression informs the project’s identity. Needless to say, we are in awe, and have added The Call of Baba Yaga to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TRIPPY playlist, whilst we continue to stream HoneyBones‘ debut single, Dragon’s Tail in the Sky.