Santa might be on his way but so are the releases. They never stop.
Here’s a quick round up of some of them this week. Songs from Helena Montgomery, Kaspar, and Mélusine.
Helena Montgomery (Sweden) – Hey Sister (single)
Back as a solo artist after a stint with a band, Helena Montgomery teamed up with a friend and song writing colleague Cecilia Kyllinge to produce this song, ‘Hey Sister’ about friendship and, yes, sisterhood, and it is dedicated “to all fellow sisters we’ve met along the way on our journeys through life…the ones that we had the most fun together with as well as knowing that you’d always be there.”
The song is produced by Mattias Axelsson, aka 1% Spandex.
The song is as elastic as the producer, a very up-tempo piece that is a little outside Helena’s usual zone.
In its arrangement it has the hallmarks of a Madonna song partly written with Erasure while the sentiment is not dissimilar to that of Fiona Apple’s Grammy winning ‘Shameika’.
Big names to be associated with. But then it’s a big song.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HelenaMontgomeryArtist
Kaspar (Finland) – City Man (Single)
After a long break, Kaspar released their second album ‘Calling the Waters’ soon after signing to the Soliti label earlier this year.
This track, ‘City Man’, didn’t make the album cut but is released now along with a James Spectrum (Pepe Deluxé) remix of that album’s ‘Let Go’ plus a new video for ‘Weight.’
‘City Man’ features more guitar than on other tracks on that album.
The song is built around a complex bass and guitar rhythm that creates a tune with realising that it is doing until it continues on through the bridge. Slightly ethereal it suggests it might accompany a road movie that shifts between big cities and their “sparkling neon” and the barren, desert-like wastes between them.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kasparband/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kasparmusic/
Mélusine (Iceland) – Bloody & in Bloom (debut single)
Mélusine is French-Icelandic and she says her project is one of “a mermaid riding her emotional waves” and that her music is “electro experimental and multi dimensional.”
It is “deeply influenced by the natural beauty and mythology of Iceland and explores themes of transformation, grief, and rebirth.”
This debut single, ‘Bloody & in Bloom’, mixes atmospheric sounds with dark-pop elements. That pretty much sums up Iceland – atmospheric and dark. Very dark right now, on the shortest day of about four hours light if you’re lucky.
Her goal is to “take the listener on a journey with their own emotions.”
Her real name is the fabulous Camille Faivre d’Arcier, which sounds aristocratic, and her back story is quite interesting.
After a decade of playing in bands and singing in choirs singing she started making her own music, which is still a work in progress.
This song was co-composed and produced with the Icelandic-Canadian artist MSEA, who has appeared in NMC previously.
She isn’t sure what made her find Mélusine so fitting. Perhaps it’s the way it trips off the tongue, or because of the Belgian comic Mélusine, the witch. Or the French beer. Or a mix of all those things at once.
There are already quite a few artists carrying that moniker so it is clearly a popular one.
Mélusine is actually a legendary creature, a half-human, half-mermaid and she seeks to challenge the accepted norm that a mermaid is scary, driving sailors out of their mind with her chant. She prefers to listen to what the mermaid is saying.
And arising out of that is her desire to “attempt to show parts of myself that are very, very human but that I keep hidden.”
The plot thickens.
Hence ‘Bloody & in Bloom’ mixes atmospheric sounds with dark-pop elements to convey the right atmosphere.
This really is a deep, dramatic piece of work and not at all what I was expecting. But then again I should have done because Iceland rarely dispenses anything bland.
It ebbs and flows all over the place and you consistently feel that you are under water rather than on land, in a submerged cathedral. Notre Dame de Reykjavik. Macron and Trump in deep sea diving gear. It is imagery that she conveys very well.
The sparse, violent percussion, the all-consuming synths and her voice come together perfectly.
She compares herself to Norway’s Aurora but she’s already so far advanced that you’d need the James Webb telescope to see her.
I suggest that if she isn’t talking to Icelandic film producers already she should put that in her diary for 2nd January. They would die for this.
And to music sync agencies as well. It is eminently sync-able for all sorts of stuff – films, TV, adverts. Boy, the world is her oyster.
If we hadn’t published Songs of the Year 2024 yesterday ‘Bloody & in Bloom’ would be in it.
I’m really looking forward to more of this, hopefully an EP or album before too long.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melusine.music
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melusine.music/
