Not much is known about Chicago’s Vanessa Upson, who performs as Violetness, pictured here in this red mask. Here’s what we do know: she’s got Peruvian blood and was a classically trained pianist before she moved towards a more avant-garde tribal pop sound. These scant details all color “The Coal,” the lead song from her forthcoming EP, Last Night in My Dreams, I Was Talking to You.

“I wrote this three years ago in my apartment with a drum,” Upson tells Hive. “It’s about an unbearable doubt with a crescent of hope.” That double-edged sword is wrapped inside a moody, ethereal arrangement reminiscent of Björk, Bat for Lashes and Florence + the Machine. “As a child, I started out at church as a cantor,” she says. “Though now the music is bowing toward something different, it maintains a sort of reverence.”

Last Night in My Dreams, I Was Talking to You arrives in March 16 on LebensStrasse Records.