Moody folk outfit Hello Death excels at sparse, haunting music that works its way into your bones like a winter chill. Made up of members of Altos (Marielle Allschwang, Nathaniel Heuer, Shawn Stephany, Erin Wolf), the group doesn’t so much perform folk music as suggest it; Allschwang’s gorgeously airy alto, Heuer’s Nick Cave-esque baritone, and the group’s stripped-down instrumentation combine to form a sound that seems to pre-date music itself.
That out-of-time quality is perfectly visualized in the upcoming video for “Settlers,” the leadoff track of Hello Death’s 2013 self-titled album. Directed by Heuer, the video is straight out of M.Night Shyamalan’s The Village (minus the dopey twist), featuring a dozen plainly dressed women (Allschwang and Wolf among them) taking part in some intense choreographed dough kneading. (The band describes the video as a “meditation on life, death, and the meanings we create to navigate and understand our lives.”)
The clip will make its premiere during a May 10 show at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery. The all-ages show begins at 8 p.m. and is $5. Christopher Porterfield will open with a solo set. Before that show, listen to “Settlers” below, and make sure those park rangers don’t follow you back to your “19th-century” village. (10-year-old spoiler alert!)