Eivør - Renée Reed - Sweetlove - Deanna Faye
Faroese folk electronica artist Eivør has released a music video and new live version of ‘Gulspunnin’, lifted from her latest album ‘Segl’, out now. Produced by Lana Del Rey collaborator Dan Heath, ‘Gulspunnin’ is Copenhagen-based Eivør’s love letter to her childhood home on the remote Faroe Islands. ‘Segl’ - featuring appearances from Ásgeir and Einar Selvik of Wardruna - is the follow-up to Eivør’s widely-praised 2017 UK commercial debut, ‘Slør’, which triggered her debut on Later….With Jools Holland. Eivør soundtracked the latest series of Netflix/BBC flagship The Last Kingdom, and her music has previously been synched on Homeland & Game Of Thrones. The new video for ‘Gulspunnin’ is now streaming from here, with a new live version of the track also included on DSPs here.
With a title that translates from Faroese as ‘cocooned in gold’, the lyrics for ‘Gulspunnin’ were created as a poem written by Faroese poet Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs. Speaking about the track - which arrives today alongside a music video directed by Icelandic visual artist Anna Maggy - Eivør says; The main inspiration behind 'Gullspunnin' came from a certain feeling I often get when I am back at home on the Faroe Islands. There is something intriguing about the light and foggy landscapes that creates some sort of nostalgic in between state of happiness and sadness - a longing for something intangible. I wanted to reflect this feeling and a certain timeless state of mind in this song. The poem written by Marjun tells a story about the soul, forever travelling alone but cocooned in shimmering gold. I have been fascinated by Anna Maggy for quite some time. In her work I could sense this same mood that I was in when I created the song. For me she really gave 'Gullspunnin' a visual home. It was a very deep and empowering experience to create this piece alongside these amazingly talented women.
Eivør is an artist perfectly attuned to the savage vicissitudes of nature. Born & raised in Syðrugøta, a tiny community of just over 400 people on one of the northerly Faroe Islands, Eivør grew up surrounded by the windswept landscape of the North Atlantic, a backdrop that has deeply influenced the elemental electronica she creates. ‘Segl’ - Eivør’s ninth album, since releasing her debut at just 17 - builds on these motifs, exploring the journeys we undertake, both metaphorically and physically. The title – meaning ‘sail’ in Faroese – alludes to our desire for growth and direction, and the role of fate.
Eivør immersed herself in music from 13, fronting a trip-hop band after discovering albums by Massive Attack and Portishead. Gigs soon followed, held afloat in rowing boats, in a huge cave on the island of Hestur. At 16 Eivør quit school, moving alone to Reykjavik to release her debut album and pursue classical singing training. She has since won the Icelandic Music Prize, twice - the first non-Icelandic artist to do so. Such itinerant tendencies have bled into her music, ‘Segl’ no exception. “My creative process can be very chaotic and abstract, so I need to find the space to dive deeper into it and sculpt it,” she says. “After sitting on songs for a year or more, I’d go in and edit the melody or the lyrics. Sometimes the production too. The whole album is very much about change, so it’s quite apt.” Working closely again with composer/producer Tróndur Bogason (also her husband), the extra space allowed Eivør to explore programming and production more thoroughly than ever before, focussed on a free flow of ideas, and enriching collaborations.
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Lafayette, Louisiana musician Renée Reed releases her debut album via Keeled Scales. The 12-song album includes the songs "Out Loud" and "Until Tomorrow" that earned her early praise last year from Gorilla vs. Bear and The Wild Honey Pie, as well as recent singles "Neboj" and "I Saw A Ghost" and the gentle psych of the French single "Où est la fée."
The songs on Renée’s self-titled debut album chronicle a three-year period. These are songs about toxic relationships, seeing ghosts, ancestral baggage and blessings, and daydreaming about love. Renée describes her music as dream-fi folk from the Cajun prairies, and this, her album, as “a whole document of me coming to terms with myself and embracing who I am without reserve.”
There is a timelessness throughout these songs, a through-line to the past, and a deep mixing of influences into something hopeful and new:
for our bones, they belong to the country
and marigolds, we will hold in our hands
and we won't know what they don't understand
Renée grew up on the accordion-bending knee of her grandfather Harry Trahan, in the middle of countless jam sessions at the one-stop Cajun shop owned by her parents Lisa Trahan and Mitch Reed, and soaked in the storytelling of her great uncle, the folklorist Revon Reed and his infamous brothers from Mamou. She was surrounded by a litany of Cajun and Creole music legends, both backstage at the many festivals of Southwest Louisiana, and on the porch of her family home.
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Born out of a tsunami of grief and pain, Sweetlove's Goodnight, Lover is a portrait of an artist coming into her own.
In late 2017, Sweetlove was beginning to work on new material when she was faced with three devastating losses - her oldest friend, Matt, her long-time love, David, and her cousin, Teddy, all passed away within one year of each other. She funneled her grief into collaborations with writers such as Jay Stolar (Selena Gomez, Trevor Daniel, Aloe Blacc, G-Eazy, Demi Lovato), Evangelina, Zach Berkman/The Heart Of (Ron Pope), Garen Gueyikian, and Adam Tressler, resulting in a collection of songs about “grappling with loss, coming to terms with it, missing someone, wishing you had known you weren’t going to have more time, and how to find joy again.”
Sweetlove has found her own refuge in songwriting after years of helping others showcase theirs. She sang backup vocals for GRAMMY-nominated and Tony award-winning artists, paying dues on huge stages. The daughter of a preacher and a teacher, she grew up in California’s Simi Valley and experienced music as a natural part of life –– not as a pursuit or a practice, but an extension of just being. Now, after living in West Hollywood for the last 15 years, Sweetlove has drawn from her time sharing stages with superstars and that resonant voice that readied worshippers for interpreting tongues to create something that is entirely, beautifully hers.
Produced by Justin Glasco (The Lone Bellow), Goodnight, Lover puts Sweetlove’s twin devotions to her earthy pop and the people she loves on magnificent display. Written with Stolar, the title track nods to the bluesy swagger of Shelby Lynne as Sweetlove sings to a new lover, from a distance.
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Metaphorically Potent & Engaging, Folk Singer/Songwriter DEANNA FAYE's “Reassure” Bears the Weight Behind Hardships of Love. Toronto-based indie folk singer-songwriter Deanna Faye poetically contrasts the light side of love and its inherent pressure with this, her new video for “Reassure.”
That latest to land from her breakthrough EP, Good To You, the song grapples with the concept of love — and how difficult it can be to grasp.
While the word, in and of itself, denotes feelings of joy and happiness, the reality behind such an emotion is that of balance; with balance comes weight, and “Reassure” exemplifies the beauty in the struggle in such a reflective way.
The instrumentation within the single instills a disheartening sensation, as the twang and reverb of the guitar march along with the pensive beat of the drums. This appropriately sets the tone of “Reassure,” as it’s a reflection of the stress and pain love can bear. Deanna Faye’s mellow and articulate vocals carry the metaphoric weight of her lyrics with innocence and conviction.
In terms of metaphors, the single is representative of Faye’s thoughts on the cycles of relationships, as well as the impulsivity of rushing into a romantic connection. She compares these experiences to pillars, in the sense that two people can pull apart yet still be close together by way of the weight they both share.
The weight, she describes, is structured around the intertwining of boundaries and desires.
“I'd been walking around the city and on hiking trails aimlessly,” she shares. “I noticed these tagged pillars that always stood out to me as being a cool piece of architecture. This is a song that illustrates the ebbs and flows. Ultimately, in a healthy relationship, the pillars still stand strong but they are always just the perfect distance apart to keep the structure sound.”
It’s been a reflective time for the emerging singer-songwriter, and the poignancy of “Reassure,” in its entirety, holds nothing short of that.
The video itself is vibrant. It revolves around a still of Faye’s face as it’s surrounded and augmented by soulful imagery that relates and reflects the song’s message. Interspersed throughout the video are live action cuts featuring the musician performing the song.
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