Sasha Siem - “See-Through” (Official Video)

Sasha Siem is one of the youngest people — let alone women — to win the prestigious British Composer Award. She did so in 2010, composing for prestigious institutions like the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Siem contains multitudes; aside from her composition background, she also studied music and poetry at Cambridge and Harvard, and has ventured into the world of avant-pop with the release of her debut album Most Of The Boys in the UK. Now, that album will be released in the US too, at the end of June. In anticipation of that, she’s shared the video for “See-Through,” a collection of intricate light collages focused mainly on her face. We premiered another of her songs, “So Polite,” back in January as a precursor to the album’s official release overseas. “See-Through” explores similar tensions. The London-based pop auteur seems intent on unraveling society’s unwritten rules down to single threads, snipping them in half as orchestral chaos swells all around. She throws her vocal lines around the song with the same drama of Fiona Apple, Jenny Hval, or Bjork, contorting her voice like a funhouse mirror. That effect lends itself well here, since the David Altweger & Mira Loew-directed visuals shift in the same way.