Hectorine "Arrow of Love" LP

Hectorine’s Sarah Gagnon calls up the spirit of the ancient Sumerian warrior goddess Inanna to explain the tumult that surrounded the making of Arrow of Love, her third full-length album, out May 23 on Take a Turn Records.

In Mesopotamian myth, the goddess descends into the underworld to learn the secrets of the chthonic realm. As she passes through each of the seven gates of hell, she is forced to relinquish a piece of her queenly armor, jewels, and robes.

She arrives naked at the throne of her sister Ereshkigal, who kills her and hangs her corpse on a hook on the wall. After three days Inanna is rescued, revived, and returned to her kingdom, but she is pursued by demons who demand that someone take her place in the underworld. When she discovers that her beloved shepherd Dumuzi has not mourned her death, she sacrifices him.

Hectorine’s latest album tells a lower key tale of death and rebirth, encompassing a period in which Gagnon lost a job and ended a relationship under the shadow of a modern plague and raging wildfires, retreating into enforced solitude until it was possible to emerge again.