Helena Deland’s stirring new document Goodnight Summerland opens wordlessly, with a measured, melancholy piano sketch performed by Lysandre Ménard. On the following track, Deland admits: “Saying one thing isn’t simple.” The introduction is a small second of grace—a recognition that, generally, we want house to gather our ideas earlier than we are able to discover the suitable phrases—and a becoming welcome to a stirring, reflective set of songs from the Montreal-based musician.
Deland’s earlier work has been equally marked by contemplation, although she’s labored throughout quite a lot of sounds. Her debut album, Somebody New, paired simple singer-songwriter inclinations with dense digital textures. It adopted a collection of EPs that included swaggering indie rock, craving folks, and bubbly synth-pop. Just lately, she’s collaborated with the rapper JPEGMAFIA and the experimental musician Claire Rousay, and made a collaborative digital document as Hildegard with producer and multi-instrumentalist Ouri. However Goodnight Summerland shows a contemporary focus and intention. Right here, Deland shifts towards a stripped-back, folksier sound, highlighting her gossamer voice and newfound observations concerning the ache of grief and the passage of time.
Deland made Goodnight Summerland within the shadow of loss: Her mom, Maria, died in the summertime of 2021. Deland wrote a few of these songs earlier than her mom’s demise and recorded demos in her dad and mom’ house within the weeks instantly following. Grief trails her throughout the album, ranging from her first traces, which inform of “cream-colored ashes” and saying goodbye. Later, the beautiful “Who I Sound Like” captures Deland within the shadowy house between desolation and acceptance, the place she addresses her mom straight: “I simply need to discuss to you,” she repeats.
All through the document, Deland is accompanied primarily by her personal acoustic guitar and a few mild percussion, with the occasional contact of piano and woodwinds. She made the document with producer Sam Evian, who performs numerous devices on the document, and a small band. The subtlety of the manufacturing serves to spotlight the document’s lodestar: Deland’s excessive, candy voice. It may shift effortlessly between modes: conversational, placid, aching, curious, joyful; it’s hardly ever ever forceful however carries the emotional weight of introspection. The readability of Deland’s voice is hanging, given how usually her lyrics spotlight the slipperiness of language itself. “Maria, I’d by no means know what I’d let you know,” she sings on “Saying One thing.” On “Drawbridge,” she asks: “Once we stated ‘later’/What did you imply?” On “Evening Comfortable as Silk,” she urges, “Inform me every part you suppose,” earlier than admitting, “phrases may be so delicate.”
