Kieli's new single 'O' tackles mass extinction, debut album out May 26th via Cognitive Shift
Kieli's new single 'O' tackles mass extinction
Listen / share here
Debut album From Summer To Spring
is out May 26th via Cognitive Shift
FFO: Joanna Newsom, Julia Holter
"Vocals there inspired by Karelian folk song and they do just tumble across that piece like they're bouncing off hills in the Fiinnish countryside"
Elizabeth Alker, BBC R3
“Dancing amongst the music like a body rushing through a forest is Elin’s graceful vocal, bringing to mind Joanna Newsom or Lowly’s Soffie Viemose.”
For The Rabbits
LISTEN / SHARE:
https://soundcloud.com/cognitiveshift/kieli-o/s-jTQZeDFRogP?
Kieli is the moniker of multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and composer Elin Pöllänen. Kieli’s artistic expression is inspired by her Swedish-Finnish-Karelian roots. On her multilingual debut album From Summer to Spring, due out on May 26th via Cognitive Shift (PJ Harvey & Harry Escott, Roger Goula), Kieli invites the listener to a cinematic soundscape that is simultaneously beautiful, ingenuous, uplifting, and melancholic.
For years, Pöllänen has worked as a researcher exploring human relations to other animals and nature. New single ‘O’ is a marching anthem for the power of grief with particular reference to mass extinction, a tragedy she says is “upheld by indifference and separation”. “I wanted ‘O’ to portray a sense of wonder for our planet and the impactful everyday encounters with nature that are often taken for granted,” she says. “The song processes complex emotions, such as a kind of modern nostalgia: a deep longing for an interconnected and living world - a world that already exists, but that we are at risk of losing due to our inability to act and join the movement that already exists,” she continues.
From Summer to Spring explores the emotions that arise in life-changing transitions; grief, exhaustion and worry, but also feelings of hope, gratitude and unconditional love. “From Summer to Spring is a very personal album that I wrote during a life-changing time,” explains Elin. It is a personal portrait of a daughter and her father during their last years together, as well as the experience of being a caregiver to someone who is disappearing, yet as close to you as they will ever be. “Amidst the fear, music really became the most attentive and merciful language that I could use to communicate with myself and explore my emotions so that I stayed resilient and open to life,” she explains.
Throughout the album’s nine songs, Kieli expertly blends cinematic indie-folk with neo-classical composition and swirling electronica, creating mystical and surreal soundscapes. Non-verbal and verbal vocals sung in Swedish, Finnish, English and the endangered Karelian language Livvi all help to evoke the many parallel feelings she experienced during this time.
Despite its weighty subject matter, From Summer To Spring is an album that also feels hopeful, and celebrates life. “I will forever be grateful that I got to walk alongside my father as a daughter and caregiver and that in our home, integrity, love and joy reigned, and routines became sacred rituals” says Pöllänen. “I really hope the album can offer people a place to rest, move, mourn, or even rejoice, like it has done for me.”
Tracklist
Cranes
For Spring
Amaranthine
O
A Memory
Colours in the dark
I felt what it all felt like
Sista visan
