Opvs Novum: A Requiem Reworked by Penelope Trappes
Release date: May 29, 2026Label: One Little Independent Records
When Brighton-based Australian vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappes made her breakthrough back in 2018 with her album Penelope Two, it came as a sort of sonic surprise, leaving only one question open – can she follow it up with something that is as (or even more) inventive? Trappes promptly delivered in 2025 with her follow-up Requiem.
That album left an even stronger impact, with both her growing audience and quite a few other forward-thinking artists. That resonance with other artists was quite impactful, it seems as Trappes was able to pick and choose among them for her new project – reworking the Requiem album under the title Opvs Novum: A Requiem Reworked.
That list is quite detailed – from Saint Etienne, Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Malinder and Julia Holter to names worthy of greater impact like Klara Lewis and Flora Yin-Wong, Gazelle Twin and PRIZMA9 to Smote, Dania, and Sarahsson.
With projects like these, there is always that tricky balance that needs to be achieved between bringing something of your own vision from the guest artist and keeping the core of the original vision and intent of the artist being ‘reworked’, in this case, Trappes. Luckily, Trappes seems to have picked the exact guest artists that will do exactly that – keep her original ideas intact while bringing their own vision of her work on the ‘Requiem’ album.
