Open share drawer In Hayden Anhedöniaâs moody, gothic soundscapes, the ageless persona of Ethel Cain confronts the religion, sex, and violence lurking within the confines of small-town America. In the earliest forms of Gregorian chant, church singers would scale multiple notes in melismatic syllables. The effect is hypnotic; a single word undulates until its original meaning blends with its soundâin some cases, it was thought to induce a trance-like state in its audience. For Hayden Anhedönia, who performs as an invented persona named Ethel Cain, those consecrated refrains were a part of daily life since childhood. Raised in an insular Southern Baptist community along the Florida panhandle, Anhedönia recalls her mother, with whom she sang in church choir, playing hymns and Gregorian chant CDs while she cooked. On