Last year, we had the pleasure of premiering a newly recorded version of Mimla from San Francisco’s She Owl, based around composer/producer Jolanda Moletta and guitar player Demian Endian. This month, She Owl is to release a live session for their song Nanna, also taken from their 2015 album Animal Eye. This new version (also, our Song of the Day) is in line with new material to be released soon. At the moment, She Owl is exploring different soundscapes and nuances for their next album, running through a plethora of unpublished songs and arrangements, some of them enriched by recent collaborations. Their creative energies seem bottomless as they continue to explore their art, taking inspiration from nature and voicing environmental concerns.
Nanna’s lyrics are inspired by the animistic concepts expressed in G.T. Fechner’s book about the soul of the plants – “Where’s my home, where’s my heart – trees of fire burning like stars…” sounds prophetic, somehow – in times where the dire consequences of the forest’s exploitation have forced humanity to review their definition of ‘our home’ and ‘our habitat’. The verse “Alone is all-in-one” describes a time where boundaries – between nations and even between species – have been inevitably crossed, and all of us may feel joined or separated for the same reason.
While the album version of Nanna presents a majestic, almost solemn pace between piano and timpani, with an arrangement intended to quietly grow like a forest in the ears of the listener, this live version – recorded in April with a limited equipment in Italy during 3 month’s of full lockdown – blooms like a single flower, elegant and heartfelt at the same time. Vocal parts and guitar reverbs are layered and measured out with a careful, romantic urge: “Due to the Italian lockdown, we’ve got only half of our gear with us – says – Demian – but our sensitivity is doubled. I’m confident someone will easily get emotionally in synch by watching the video, also thanks to Jolanda’s poignant montage”.
In Jolanda’s words “We’ve been stuck in Northern Italy on full lockdown since the beginning of March. We still can’t leave our region at the moment. It feels like everything is broken up and burnt down. Our personal deal is to get deeper and deeper into our thoughts and feelings, to fortify our creative process. Now more than ever we want to avoid distraction and escapism, what we both need is art as signage, showing transformative symbols that bring a positive message of change and inner growth, to avoid making the same mistakes so that this pain was not in vain.”
In Demian’s words: “The best way to be ready for future changes in our lives is to tune in on our emotions (if we won’t do it, politicians and commercials will) and use them as fuel for our actions. You may find She Owl’s music as an excellent antenna.”