Setting the tone with an almost alarming, bold synth, we are immediately hypnotized by the first of two debut songs from emerging Finnish artist, Amelouk.
From her EP called No Appetite, the opening song is Cocktail. We are met with a syncopated beat as Amelouk sings “Hiding today, detached emotion, i had a cocktail…” in a wavering and emotive manner, reminiscent of Nina Simone fused with Björk.
Kuolema means death in Finnish, and if you read that backwards and you get Amelouk, confirming that the artist is not afraid to address dark themes in her work.
Cocktail continues to expand and transform with clarinet and an immersive bass solos that take us on a journey of their own, as our protagonist croons of her “shameless fingers… touching your face…”
Amelouk is a one-woman band for those who might connect with dark and alternative trip-hop vibes. Speaking on the release, the artist says that the songs from No Appetite are “musically based on looping hypnotic samples and weird beats. If your ears prick in the direction of the intense and the dramatic this is for you!”
Passion Sour is equally immersive and we love the panning synth-work, and Amelouk haunting and jarring vocal stylings keep us on edge.
Discussing her creative process, Amelouk confesses, “Both songs are written close to each other time-wise and deal with a similar theme of heartache. Passion Sour is directly about heartache, being painfully obsessed with someone and being consumed by the obsession to the brink of death. Cocktail is a cocktail of sorts, I wrote the lyrics in a detached sleep-deprived and slightly hung over mood thinking about failure in music and in love. It was raining slightly, almost a mist. A grey day.”
Speaking on her influences, Amelouk says, “I’m influenced by everything I listen to. On this release you can probably hear a Portishead influence, maybe some Björk as well. Some trip-hop vibes.. In general my tastes in music are pretty wide. Some of my current favourites are Dead Can Dance, Alcest, Nick Cave, Debussy, Nina Simone, Massive Attack, Portishead, Björk, Shakira, Leonard Cohen, Chelsea Wolfe, Rammstein, Yasmine Hamdan, the Smiths and Radiohead”. We can definitely feel that coming through, particularly the Portishead reference from the Dummy era.
The rising artist from Helsinki continues, “Dreams and visions play a big part in my creative process, often providing atmospheres I try to capture. Maybe that’s why people tend to think my music is somehow cinematic. I try not to think too much about other music when creating, but it seeps in anyway sometimes. I have a classical singing background and I played classical piano as a child. That classical influence shows up in my music as well, although often not consciously.”
We love the cinematic nature of the double release and have added Passion Sour to our New Music Spotlight playlist!