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Rock
Published:
2021
Record label:
Drabant Music
«Worth the wait.»
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ALBUM: It’s always sad when rare talents suddenly disappear from the stage and the public while they are still on the rise. Monica Heldal (30) from Arna in Bergen released two critically acclaimed albums and performed at the big festivals – and then it was quiet. Drying still. Hardly a word in the media before the first single from the album “Ravensdale” was released in February.
Tinnitus
Right after the launch tour for sitt andre album, «The One In The Sun», she was knocked out by tinnitus and sound sensitivity.
– I was extremely hypersensitive to sound in the time right after. It went very hard on my psyche. I isolated myself for fear of being exposed to noise. The sound of a car driving past could be pure suffering, she told VG in July 2016.
Had to cancel
The concerts she had booked that summer were canceled. Very boring when you are in shock as an artist, but Heldal simply needed a timeout that turned out to last for four to five years. But – quietly she has worked in the studio with her old collaborator, guitarist and co-producer Cato “Salsa” Thomassen. Together with drummer Kenneth Kapstad (Motorpsycho / Gåte), they can now “unveil” nine songs on a release that in many ways appears as a kind of concept album – with impressions from the USA, Canada and Ireland in particular. The soundscape is as airy and beautiful as the landscape she praises in her songs.
Perfect artist at the age of 22!
Ireland and Canada
Heldal toured the United States and Canada in 2015 and lived in Ireland many years ago. Among other things, she traveled around and played the songs of the national guitar hero Rory Gallagher – one of her great sources of inspiration alongside Nick Drake and Led Zeppelin.
This may explain her special musical style, which is a mixture of genres such as folk, prog rock, pop, blues and folk music. If we add a distinctive guitar style and voice, we can state that she has almost created her own genre.
To Spellemannpriser
The debut album and the song with the same title, «The Boy From The North» (2013), set a sky-high standard. The good reception was topped off with two Spellemann awards.
The sequel has excellent songs like “Jimmy Got Home” and the last track “Actual Farewell”, which suddenly became symbolic. The penultimate song on album number two is “Ravensdale”, which is also the title of the new album (and somewhere in Ireland). The first song even has the title «Ravensdale Reprise», perhaps to emphasize that the ring has ended and that she has not revolutionized either style or sound since the last time. The text is new, but it is unmistakable Heldal we hear. She does not look like anyone.
Monica Heldal’s wonder package
Albumartist
At a time when the format is being challenged, it can be stated that Heldal is to a large extent one albumartist. About five minutes long «It Could Still Be A Good Day» is a key track in that sense, by the way a mantra we need to hear a lot in these sad days, replaced by «Wallowa Lake» (a lake in Oregon, USA) and “Peace” (Gaelic for peace), a suggestive song with a lot of fine acoustic guitar work which in turn connects Heldal in genre to Irish and English folk rock.
Five minutes long «Peacetown» sums up in many ways everything that Heldal stands for musically, before more subdued and “floating” «Prairie», «Glitter in Golden» (a memory from the Canada tour in 2015) and «Fair» rounds of the album with more of Heldal’s eclectic musical brews. Welcome back!
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