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Aug 17, 2021 By Mark Redfern

Norway’s Ora the Molecule (aka Nora Schjelderup) released her debut album, Human Safari, in July via Mute (stream it here). Now she has shared a video for the album’s “Helicopter,” which was filmed in India and features her wandering around a large deserted building and encountering herself. She’s also shared two new remixes of the song, one by Anika and one by Eagles & Butterflies. Check it all out below.

Tanmay Chowdhary directed the “Helicopter” video and had this to say in a press release: “The video is inspired by the idea of helicopters dropping in for rescue and evacuations. This film is set in the concrete jungle of a housing complex in India and explores the mental implications of living in a world that is increasingly cut off from nature. In the film, the protagonist is stuck in this concrete maze, trying to escape from themselves. Shedding light on the mental health crises of our time, the film is a call for a helicopter to take us away from the concrete jungle of our own minds.”

Schjelderup had this to say about the video: “The video for ‘Helicopter’ was shot in the outskirts of New Delhi, India. We were visiting Tanmay’s uncle who lived in this crazy post-apocalyptic building. It gave me associations of Franz Kafka’s The Trial. We were both so fascinated by the concept of these building complexes that functioned like mini cities. The place was so impersonal and strange looking, but at the same time we understood that the people living there felt very privileged…. We shot the video in one day, just running around the building. It reminded me of a communist aesthetic, but these were built in the capitalistic spirit. It really did feel like a visualisation of the ‘mind trap’ that the song ‘Helicopter’ is about—like a big labyrinth, where it’s impossible to get perspective because it’s so massive and the individual feels so small in it.”

Of the new remixes, Schjelderup says: “I love how Eagles & Butterflies created a nostalgic ’80s disco vibe, with some definite Todd Terje associations. Anika made a proper underground acid mix, suitable for Berghain. I love how these artists redressed the song and lent completely different feelings to it, like a new chapter in the life of ‘Helicopter!’”

Anika had this to say about her remix: “I wanted to focus on the vocals and take them through the cityscape, like driving through Berlin at night in some muscle car, and give it a whole different setting. It’s a little bit more sinister.”

Chris Barratt of Eagles & Butterflies had this to say about his remix: “I loved working on these remixes for Nora, huge fan of her music. I wanted to make something big, moody and synthy for the dance floor. I used loads of my favourite bits of studio kit including CS-60, Juno 60, Roland 201, H3000 and the Devil Fish 303, added a little bass guitar, played some nice chords and melodies and that’s it! For the Lost In A Space Echo Mix I wanted a version that was less peak time and just flowed around the vocal, something a little more dreamy. I love the harmonies in ‘take me to a place , take me home.’ I looped this throughout the track and played the whole track back through a space echo.”

Berlin-based singer Anika (aka Annika Henderson) also released a new album, Change, in July, via the labels Sacred Bones and Invada.

In February, Schjelderup shared the song “Creator” upon the album’s announcement, and it was featured on our Songs of the Week. Then she shared its next single, “Die to Be a Butterfly,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared another single from it, “The Ball,” via a video that features lots of slow motion shots of her riding a horse (sometimes in reverse), as well as of her with a dog on a beach. “The Ball” once again landed Ora the Molecule on the Songs of the Week list. The album also features previous single “Sugar.”

A press release for Human Safari says its songs alternate “between joyous, beat-driven avant-pop and slick synthwave.”

“It’s for sure two poles,” Schjelderup agrees. “The speaker is the storyteller and the instrumentals are nature or the way life goes. Sometimes you get scared, sometimes it opens up. It’s life. I wanted to make a landscape where the voice could guide you through and be a safe voice. So even when it’s a little bit darker, you’re still in the story and it continues.”

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