WATCH / SHARE “STRAWBERRY MOON” VISUALIZER HERE
BUY / STREAM “STRAWBERRY MOON” HERE
HELENA DELAND’S NEW LP, GOODNIGHT SUMMERLAND, OUT OCTOBER 13, 2023 VIA CHIVI CHIVI
INTERNATIONAL TOUR DATES BEGIN NOVEMBER 2023
PRE-SAVE GOODNIGHT SUMMERLAND HERE
“An introspective jewel of a song, "Bright Green Vibrant Gray" weaves together our relationships to each other and nature, making the losses a little softer and the world a bit brighter.”
CBC Music
“‘Bright Green Vibrant Gray’ is an apt title for this song that sounds like a rainy day in April; delicately plucked acoustic guitar hits like raindrops in a puddle, while the flutes and harmonies blossom, at the first signs of spring growth.” - Brooklyn Vegan (Indie Basement - Best Songs Of August)
“’Swimmer’ strips things back into a ghostly folk song where Deland's voice perches itself above doleful acoustic guitar lines.” - The FADER
“Helena Deland is back with {“Spring Bug”} a radiant, swaying springtime anthem, buzzing with the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of renewal.” - Gorilla Vs. Bear
"Personal loss and worries about global warming merge in ‘Swimmer.’ Helena Deland sings in a hushed, humble voice over acoustic guitar picking and rumbling noise undercurrents. She’s singing to someone who won’t be around long, who flinches at a cold ocean swim but who also realizes that ‘The warmer waters get, the more the oceans expand.’ The song contrasts brief human lifetimes to the inexorable forces of nature; the noise is the eternal sound of crashing waves." - The New York Times (The Playlist)
Photo Credit : Lawrence Fafard // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, the acclaimed Montreal-based songwriter and musician Helena Deland shares “Strawberry Moon”, the final pre-release single from her new album Goodnight Summerland, ahead of its release on October 13 via Chivi Chivi. A folk lullaby for lovers lost in the nightfall, “Strawberry Moon” features wistful piano melodies and a sweet, textured acoustic guitar on which Helena lays her exquisite vocals.
According to Helena, the song was written “during an annual vacation at a beloved friend's cottage by the lake, where strawberries are known as 'heart berries' in the Anishinaabe tradition, ‘Strawberry Moon’ is sleepless and peaceful.” Further adding: “I was clear minded, able to welcome both the eagerness and weariness brought forth by the love story unfolding at a distance. These sentiments infuse ordinary nights with the colors of fate. Every year of our lives has taken us to where we are. We're not just witnesses to this moment; we're an integral part of a world where strawberries bloom every year.”
WATCH / SHARE “STRAWBERRY MOON” VISUALIZER HERE
BUY / STREAM “STRAWBERRY MOON” HERE
“Strawberry Moon” arrives after August’s “Bright Green Vibrant Gray” which accompanied the announcement of Goodnight Summerland with a charming video directed by Xavier Beldor, depicting Deland going on a painting expedition through the deep snow in Charlevoix, Quebec. 2022's “Swimmer” (which received praise from The New York Times), and May 2023’s “Spring Bug” (which made it onto Pitchfork’s SELECTS staff picks playlist), also appear on Goodnight Summerland.
Helena Deland is interested in how songs can hold what eludes everyday language. Her music draws on reading and walking around. Goodnight Summerland was recorded with Sam Evian at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskill mountains. It was engineered by Sam, co-produced by Helena and Sam, and mastered by Heba Kadry (Bjork, Beach House, Slowdive). Deland's new songs have simpler musical arrangements than 2020's debut Someone New, focusing on the sheer joy and transformative power of a good song.
WATCH / SHARE “BRIGHT GREEN VIBRANT GRAY” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BRIGHT GREEN VIBRANT GRAY” HERE
MORE ABOUT HELENA DELAND
Helena's beloved debut album, Someone New, was released in 2020 on Luminelle Recordings, garnering press acclaim from Brooklyn Vegan, THE FADER, NPR, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paste, Pitchfork, and Stereogum among many others. It was followed by the release of Hildegard, a collaborative album with fellow Montreal musician Ouri on section1. 2023 has also seen Helena collaborate with claire rousay on the “Deceiver” single, released in May as part of Mexican Summer’s Looking Glass series, and on July’s “Sigh In My Ear” as part of Saddle Creek’s Document series.
WATCH / SHARE “SPRING BUG” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “SWIMMER” HERE
In November 2023 Helena will embark on her First Headline Tour of North America, followed by her first headline dates overseas in February 2024. She has extensively toured North America and Europe opening for the likes of Weyes Blood, Andy Shauf, The Weather Station, Connan Mockasin, Soccer Mommy, and Iggy Pop. Full tour dates can be found below.
PRAISE FOR HELENA DELAND
“‘Spring Bug’ is a lush landscape of oil-painted acoustic pondering, traipsing lightly through meaningful lyrics. Deland opens the track with cyclical acoustic guitar fingerpicking, warm in tone and pensive in sound. The easy current of the guitar almost gives off the feeling of meditation, coursing through dissonant progressions. A quirky acoustic bass line joins in the second verse, nodding to the eccentric twinge in Deland’s sound.” - Ones To Watch
“‘Swimmer’ is dedicated to the memory of Deland’s mother, who passed away last year. Its instrumentation is as spare as its emotions are abundant: Deland’s porcelain vocals rest on a bed of fingerpicked acoustic guitar and atmospheric synth accents, foregrounding lyrics (inspired by poet Mary Oliver’s “Clamming”) that are both heartbreaking and beautiful.” - Paste
“‘Bright Green Vibrant Gray,’ the new single off of her upcoming second record, Goodnight Summerland, has a different texture. Where the songs on Someone New shared a phenotype with the velvety, sensual trip hop of Portishead, ‘Bright Green Vibrant Gray,’ is wispier, folkier. The song is concerned with new loves, the loss of a parent, thinking of human existence as something geological… The instrumentation mirrors this lyrical pastoralism: the way the drums turn it all into a sleepy sort of waltz, the way the guitars turn like the tides. It is an exquisite, small song. Something to rub your eyes to as you greet the day, remembering how the world is very big and old.” - Pitchfork
“On her debut album Someone New, Montreal singer/songwriter Helena Deland had a tendency to craft hauntingly gorgeous material from subtle, slow-burn melodies and arrangements. ‘Bright Green Vibrant Gray’ is another such example of the knack she has for crafting breathtakingly understated material whose beauty creeps up on you through its duration. Beginning with just a gentle juxtaposition of acoustic guitar plucks and Deland’s own voice, with additional elements slowly making their presence known through a soft focus view of comfortingly natural imagery. There’s no great climax here, nothing so obviously powerful, just a song whose soft beauty feels rife for basking in with the coming fall season.” - Treble (Essential Tracks)
“{“Spring Bug” is} introspective, moving…Against warm chords, her voice is like a breeze on a spring day.”- Uproxx
TOUR DATES // TICKETS HERE
11/02/2023 - Vancouver - Fox Cabaret
11/03/2023 - Seattle - Madame Lou’s
11/04/2023 - Portland - Mississippi Studios
11/06/2023 - San Francisco - Cafe du Nord
11/07/2023 - Los Angeles - Lodge Room
11/08/2023 - San Diego - Casbah
11/09/2023 - Phoenix - Valley Bar
11/11/2023 - Denver - Lost Lake
11/13/2023 - Minneapolis - 7th st
11/14/2023 - Chicago - Lincoln Hall
11/15/2023 - Detroit - El club
11/16/2023 - Toronto - Horseshoe
11/18/2023 - Brooklyn - Music Hall of Williamsburg
11/19/2023 - DC - Songbyrd
11/24/2023 - Montréal - La Tulipe
11/25/2023 - Québec - Le Pantoum
02/13/2024 - Baden - One Of A Million Festival
02/14/2024 - Munich - Milla
02/15/2024 - Berlin - Privatclub
02/16/2024 - Amsterdam - Paradiso Upstairs
02/17/2024 - Paris - Pop Up Du Label
02/19/2024 - Brussels - Botanique
02/21/2024 - London - The Lexington
Cover Art by Beverly Zawitkoski // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
GOODNIGHT SUMMERLAND TRACKLISTING
1.Moon Pith
2.Saying Something
3.Spring Bug
4.Bright Green Vibrant Gray
5.Drawbridge
6.Roadflower
7.The Animals
8.Who I Sound Like
9.Swimmer
10.Night Soft As Silk
11.Strawberry Moon
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