Moons in Retrograde reworks debut single / video ‘The Rotten Tree (Fresh Rot)’ ahead of new album
Moons in Retrograde
Nightmare trip-pop / dark alt-electro hyperpop project Moons in Retrograde has released the new single and video “The Rotten Tree (Fresh Rot)”. The track is taken from the forthcoming debut album “The Third Side of the Coin” (out November 25, 2025).
Project founder Kara Kuckoo (US-born; vocals, composition, visuals) explains the origin of the track: “‘The Rotten Tree’ was my debut song for Moons in Retrograde, and was the first song I have ever created and composed entirely solo… When I finally sat down and started to create, it was like an upheaval of buried emotions with waves of sadness, anger and regret spilling out of me… Since then, it remains something like a treasure to me, a baby that I created from my own rot.”
“The Rotten Tree” is the project’s second video-single from the album (after “Mirror Obscura“) and a re-work of Moons in Retrograde’s first release from November 2022, now produced, mixed and mastered by Etienne Pelosoff.
Kuckoo says this on the 2025 re-work with producer Etienne Pelosoff: “I knew I had to let go and trust that Etienne would preserve its essence while elevating the song… Etienne and LUX perfectly rendered the emotions at the core of the song with sounds and images that alchemized its essence into the dark gem it is today.”
The video concept grew from Kuckoo’s body-painting work and the creation of The Rotten Tree persona, with direction by LUX and sequences filmed in the attic of an abandoned building in Flensburg, a field on the Germany – Denmark border, and the artist’s studio.
You can pre-order the album below.
About Moons in Retrograde
Moons in Retrograde is the solo project of Kara Kuckoo, a US-born musician and multimedia performance artist now based in Flensburg, Germany. The project merges dark alternative electronics with trip-pop and staged performance elements (body-paint, dance, film).
The project’s first release, “The Rotten Tree (Origin of Rot)”, appeared in November 2022. Through 2023 Kuckoo issued a run of self-released digital singles including “The Voices,” “Haunted,” and “Cardboard Coffins.”
In 2024 the EP “Lamented Dreams” landed. In 2025 Moons in Retrograde issued further singles including “Mirror Obscura,” while preparing the debut album “The Third Side of the Coin.”
Moons in Retrograde is basically a solo vehicle for Kara Kuckoo; her current collaborators include Etienne Pelosoff (production/mix/master) and LUX (video direction). Before founding Moons in Retrograde, Kuckoo was part of In Winter (Cleveland, OH) and the trip-hop duo Azure Noir (Las Vegas).
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