Released on May 29 via One Little Independent Records, Opvs Novum: A Requiem Reworked sees Penelope Trappes inviting a carefully chosen circle of artists to reinterpret her acclaimed fifth album, A Requiem. Conceived as more than a conventional remix record, the project reimagines the original work through ten distinct artistic voices, expanding its themes of grief, memory, and transformation.
Among them is “Second Spring (Flora Yin-Wong Rework),” which we recently premiered on Keyi. The rework offers a new perspective on the original composition and reflects the spirit of creative freedom that runs throughout the album.
Featuring contributions from Klara Lewis, Saint Etienne, Gazelle Twin & PRIZMA9, Midwife, Sarahsson, Smote, Stephen Mallinder, Dania, Julia Holter, and Flora Yin-Wong, Opvs Novum transforms A Requiem into a collective work shaped by a diverse range of artistic perspectives.
Below, we speak with Penelope Trappes about the project, collaboration, and the ideas behind Opvs Novum: A Requiem Reworked.
We’re so happy to feature you on Keyi. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
I am so happy to be in Keyi! Thank you! I am Penelope Trappes… A UK-based, experimental musician and vocalist and I create dark, unsettling, drone-based, gothic music.
My fifth full-length album, ‘A Requiem, about dreams, nightmares, death and grief, was released in 2025.
To me, music is a place to adjust our eyes to the darkness, the drama, the chaos, where life is a mix of distorted tension and operatic beauty.
Could you tell us more about the album and the idea behind ‘Opvs Novum’?
Opvs Novum is the reworked version of ‘A Requiem’ I chose 10 artists to reinterpret all the songs on the album… I was still touring the album, playing these songs live, and I thought it needed new life to be breathed into it.
Touring the album, I watched how the stories within each song began to connect with audiences and within the greater community in different ways, especially the ‘global grief’ that exists in the world with the rise of racism, war and discrimination.
Because of the heart-wrenching energy being stirred in so many as the world goes through this transitional chaos, it felt to me that ‘A Requiem Reworked, with less personal energy, more additional communal creative energy from musical friends and legends, could be a sort of healing balm. Having an outsider’s perspective, distanced from the initial project, I knew that each artist would interpret things in a completely new way, dependent on whatever mental states each artist was in at the time, bringing this into the fold.
Over the course of ten songs, ten different mental states and life experiences were involved in the creation. I can’t speak for what their states were, but all of the artists were creatively free to do anything they wanted. I think as a whole album, it is almost MORE elegiac, and more sacred sounding.
How did you choose the artists involved in the reworks?
A lot of these artists are personal friends of mine, and I felt the contrasting nature of the different artists mirrors the chaos of life. This project unfolded and expanded as a beautiful gathering of very different artists who work in vastly different worlds of music.
Each artist made up their own world of complementary sounds as an honest, diverse and variable document, like any recorded moment in time can be. A communal surrender. It all came together freely and organically.
What was your first reaction to Flora Yin-Wong’s version of “Second Spring”?
I adored how she leaned into a minimalist approach.
When I first heard it, I was entranced inside her string plucking amid the deconstructed atmosphere from the original, and was ecstatic at how it was so very free and different, and beautiful in its slowly evolving oddness. I loved it immediately!
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