NOÊTA has released an intensely melancholic video featuring vocalist Êlea for the track ‘Dawn Falls’. This song is also the first single taken from the Nordic dark ambient folk outfit’s forthcoming album ‘Elm’, which has been scheduled for release on April 23, 2021. 

“The song ‘Dawn Falls’ revolves around an inner struggle that tries to balance between giving your trust to someone and holding back for self-protection”, writes mastermind Êlea.

  • (c) William Faucher

“We can be so hopeful in our relationship with other people and give them power over us with our trust, our desires, our honesty. Yet in human relationships, high hopes can be betrayed leading to the inner abyss of loneliness and from there to isolation and resignation. When being alone becomes the easier choice, then the pain might also offer an opportunity for strength and with it new hope.”

  • (c) William Faucher
  • (c) Dina Christophersen

The sound of a teardrop falling onto a moss-covered stone. The sound of heartbreaking. The sound of a rosebud opening at dawn. These are just some of the sounds that Norway-based band NOÊTA with vocalist and musician Êlea have woven their songs from. Once again, she has been joined by her long-time collaborator Ândris from Sweden, who added a wide range of instruments to the music, which has been fittingly dubbed as dark ambient among other terms.

Lyrically, their sophomore full-length, ‘Elm’ is loosely based on emotions connected to the eponymous poem by celebrated American author Sylvia Plath, who struggled with severe depression and sadly committed suicide shortly after writing ‘Elm’.
“The lyrical material serves as an outlet for my own personal struggles”, states Êlea. “It makes this album more cohesive as it mostly reflects my own musical vision.”

Something dark, melancholic, and at times even sinister is haunting each of the eight tracks collected on this album. Yet at the same time, NOÊTA‘s music comes with an inherent ethereal beauty, which is carried by Êlea’s both lucent and lucid voice. The focus on her bewitching vocals is further underlined by subtle and nearly minimalistic use of instrumentation that masterly captures and enhances the musical moods.

Taking their name from the ancient Greek philosophical notion of universal thoughts or ideas that exist independently of any agent having them, NOÊTA embarks on their musical journey into the otherworld with the highly praised 2015 EP ‘psykhē’, which also refers to classical Greek philosophy where it denotes the wholeness of a person. This was followed by the equally acclaimed debut album ‘Beyond Life and Death’ in 2017, which added more depth and audible confidence to the duo’s compositions.

With the recording, production and mix again firmly controlled by NOÊTA, mastering of ‘Elm’ was for the first time left to the expert hands of Tore Stjerna at Necromorbus Studio (MAYHEM, WATAIN). Guest contributions by KNOKKELKLANG and P.Stille of STILLA and BERGRAVEN also hint at Êlea‘s roots in black metal that remain present although her personal darkness takes a different stylistic direction.

‘Elm’ witnesses NOÊTA charting their very own left-hand course through the rising tide of unique female artists such as CHELSEA WOLFE, ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF, or EMMA RUTH RUNDLE to name but a few of the highly individual voices claiming their territory in the world of dark music.

Release date: April 23, 2021, via Prophecy Production (pre-orders: here)

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Nicoleta Raicu

Editor-in-Chief at Cultartes Magazine
Still can't tell exactly my origins because of my suspiciously ‘Chinese eyes’.