Helena Deland is a Montreal-based musician interested in how songs can hold what eludes everyday language. Her music draws on reading and walking around. She released her first album, Someone New, in 2020 on Luminelle Recordings. It was followed by the release of Hildegard, a collaborative album with fellow Montreal musician Ouri on section1. On October 13th, 2023, Helena reveals her sophomore full-length record, Goodnight Summerland, an intimate and meditative collection of eleven songs published by label and longtime collaborators Chivi Chivi. Goodnight Summerland features singles “Swimmer”, “Spring Bug”, “Bright Green Vibrant Gray” and “Strawberry Moon”. In November 2023 and February 2024, Helena will be going on her first world headline tour. She has extensively toured North America and Europe opening for the likes of Weyes Blood, Andy Shauf, Connan Mockasin, Soccer Mommy and Iggy Pop.

"I was somehow never moved to google ‘Summerland,’ the place where I was born and of which I have no memory," says Deland. "Until earlier this year, I had been content basing my ideas of it exclusively on stories my parents told: the mandolin-playing roommate, the friendly ghost in the attic, the red Toyota. When I finally got around to looking it up, I was stunned; the aerial views revealed a hilly verdant landscape with a bright blue river running through it. My surprise came from the fact that its beauty had eluded me until then, a reminder of how perceptions relentlessly evolve in spite of distance and time.

"In the summer of 2021, I lost my mother, Maria. Though some songs were written before, Goodnight Summerland was recorded in the years following her passing. Grief has forced me to confront death as well as the virtues of vulnerability. It has been a pure encounter with mystery. I have felt alone with questions unanswered, and I have come to believe that these questions mean more than their answers could. I have learned that daring to say something difficult is a beautiful thing, a way to bridge the gap created between people in a culture that values individualism over connection.

"The album could have been called “Saying Something” - songs emerged from the space between speaking and the impossibility to express. I wanted the recordings to emphasize the living heart inhabiting each lyric, hoping that the vulnerability it took to write them could remain intact. I recorded some demos in the empty space at my parent’s home in the weeks following my mom’s passing, and later with my bandmates (Alexandre Larin on guitar and Francis Ledoux on drums) at a beloved studio in Ontario (Port William Sound). I then took the demos to the Catskills at Sam Owens and Hannah Cohen’s (Flying Cloud Recordings), where Sam and I recorded the versions you hear on the album. It was mixed by Sam and mastered by Heba Kadry, who also mastered my first record, Someone New.

"Throughout the album, saying something takes precedence over saying something. I love this idea that music starts where language leaves off. Writing and recording Goodnight Summerland felt like an act of letting go, of living in that space with the lights turned off. It was a “Goodnight” more than a “Goodbye.” Music said it better than words could."