Posts Tagged ‘Luminelle Recordings’

HELENA DELAND – ” Someone New “

Posted: August 11, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Montreal’s Helena Deland has been releasing her music over the last year: methodically, and singularly.

“It’s a happy mix of different years and different contexts,” explains Deland, of her upcoming, five-song EP. The 26-year-old Montrealer began writing songs in high school, and started recording her work three years ago. While the oldest song in this new collection is roughly four years old, they are all loosely linked thematically so that “like stages, weaving in and out of relationships” and is “about wanting to be close with someone.”

The EP won’t be released until October. 19th, but we’re premiering its third single, “Lean on You,” which aptly fits into the descriptor. “It’s about having a crush that you’re kind of resisting because you don’t want to surrender mental space to this. You know?” explains Deland. The woozy track starts simply, with only Deland’s voice and guitar, and expands into a teasing chorus that states, “Cause I don’t need/ I don’t need/ to lean on you, no/ even though/ that’s what other people do.” You can hear whisps of what sounds like Deland’s breath through the lyrics, as her “ah-ah-aahs” march you gently through the song.

Produced by fellow Montrealer Jesse Mac Cormack (who has produced all of Deland’s EPs, encompassing 2016’s Drawing Room and March 2018’s Vol. I & II), Altogether Unaccompanied Vol. III & IV is her second EP to be released on new label Luminelle Records, of which Deland is the first signee.

Helena Deland’s new single ‘Someone New’ out now. Her debut album ‘Someone New’ out October

“A wispy and elusive bit of music — part indie-pop under a hazy murk, part dreamy synthscape. As ever, there’s something a little eerie about it all, Deland blending catchiness and ghostliness.” – Stereogum
“After the last notes fade to black, the ghost of Someone New continues to haunt you — it’s an utterly unforgettable record.” – Line of Best Fit
“You’ll be hard-pressed to find a debut album released this year with such rich compositional acumen and creative instincts that orbit the domain of pop.” – The FADER
“I encourage people to listen to it as an album, because it really takes you on a journey.”  – NPR
“Her music feels designed for the sacred space between headphones: private listening to a songwriter’s private battles, in a realm where even the screams are internal.” – New Yorker

It feels like we’ve been waiting forever, but Helena Deland‘s debut album Someone New is finally here! We’re so proud to share this gorgeous project with you today, plus a lovely new animated video for album track “Comfort, Edge.”

Band Members:
Helena – Guitar, vocals
Alexandre – Guitar
Francis – Drums
Agathe – Bass

Album out on Luminelle Recordings and Chivi Chivi October 16th.

HANA VU – ” How Many Times Have You Driven By “

Posted: July 10, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Solitude is not always lonely, nor always so sweet as splendid isolation. More often it hovers between, ambivalent yet beautifully apprehended by Hana Vu on her debut EP How Many Times Have You Driven By. Written and produced by Hana herself, the EP masters the defining balance of bedroom pop: it’s warm, sparse, and whisper-intimate yet at the same time wholly radio-ready. The opening “Crying on the Subway”, set on the purgatorial Metro Red Line between downtown and the valley, is saturated with a mood of L.A. noir, with Hana singing to her reflection: “In my dreams I’m in that grey room. In my chest I’m feeling dark blue. Take the Red Line into downtown. I’m trying to escape you.” It was this song— or rather its accompanying video— that first tripped the sensors of Chris and Graham of Luminelle Recordings, a recent offshoot of Fat Possum. The precocious Vu, at only seventeen, had already written music for five years, self-released an album on Soundcloud featuring a collab with Willow Smith, and polished up enough new songs for a gem of an EP, which they eagerly signed, pressed, and called in Clay Jones (Modest Mouse, Sunflower Bean) to master.

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Clamoring for creative outlets from an early age, she formed musical projects and played shows, though without fully clicking with her teen peers in the local D.I.Y. brat-pack. “I wouldn’t call myself a curmudgeon, but I found it hard to be friends with other young people. Instead, I found two or three key homies, then just did my own thing— socially and in my music”— partly explaining the ambition and ambiance of How Many Times Have You Driven By. On “Cool”, for instance, Hana drapes a lower-key, soulful melody over beats borrowed from her friend Satchy, who also chimes in for a verse as they tarry with life’s misfortunes. She follows this with “Shallow”, in which her calm twists into agitation and a more recognizably rock instrumentation, all played and recorded by Hana in her bedroom. The EP returns to peace with the dreamy “426”— the address of a summer residence in which Hana discovered a sense of place or belonging— though fleetingly, as her friends disbanded at the season’s end. But, c’est la vie. Solitude, for all its occasional pangs, is for Hana Vu as much a condition of her independence, a little breathing room from the throng to forge her own certain future in music. As she’ll tell you, with poise and fairly pleased with things so far,“I spend most of my time alone.”

How Many Times Have You Driven By EP out June 29th on Luminelle Recordings