In her debut EP, Annsofie Salomon confesses to the trauma of her past and shows how to heal through her folky dream pop
The artwork for Annsofie Salomon’s debut folk-y dream pop EP shows the artist standing, in reflective faded tones, next to a lake and a few half-sunken canoes. Since her debut single “Soft Dreams”, in which she recounts tossing years worth of paintings and sculptures into the ocean, Salomon has been singing about themes of sinking, being underwater, and healing through self-reflection in her music.
What are now entering the world as songs, however, began as something else: “They didn’t start out as songs—just text—just notes from my brain to a piece of paper because it felt like a therapeutic thing to do—a personal confession. It was a good thing that I didn’t know what was imminent—that one day people would hear my thoughts—because I probably wouldn’t have been so honest in them.”
“I’m super vulnerable on this EP” she continues, “so it has taken me some time to feel comfortable being open about the themes of the songs. One is about my own mental health struggles, another is about personal identity crisis and a third about losing someone close to me, though she is not dead. But after the singles came out, I felt a shift and a sense of increasing relief from facing up to a time in my life that I otherwise, probably, would have buried. Privacy can be an anchor, but when you lose it you might feel a lot lighter.”
Annsofie Salomon’s wavering, dancing vocals evoke feelings of vulnerability, but at the same time levity and healing, reflecting the path of her own personal journey. It's a journey that has included recurring hardship—years of artistic ambition culminating in nothing, amidst personal and mental health struggles—so it’s fitting when Salomon describes the message of the EP: “For whatever reason, you may find yourself desolated or drowning.”
But like her songs, which transform from vulnerable to grand and beautiful, for Annsofie Salomon, the title of her EP is more a message of hope: “For me, the title says to trust that time and space will show you how to breathe even when it is impossible.”
Only Space and Time Can Tell How to Breathe in an Ocean Shell features Christian Balvig (Efterklang, Copenhagen Philharmonic, When Saints Go Machine) on synthesizer, Morten Brok (The Telenovelas) on drums, Jeppe Skovbakke (I Got You On Tape, Oh Land, Teitur), and a guest appearance on guitar from producer Christoffer Emil Hørbo (Lowly).
credits
released June 11, 2021
Produced by Christoffer Emil Hørbo; co-produced by Annsofie Salomon
Mixed by Christoffer Emil Hørbo
Mastered by Emil Thomsen, ET Mastering
Recorded at Biking Bear Studio, Copenhagen
Blossoming from the roots of an upbringing steeped in folk music, Annsofie Salomon's artistic universe has traces of organic
folk scattered throughout. But just as she transforms organic subjects into otherworldly images in her visual art, Annsofie Salomon’s sonic landscape uses her songwriting as a canvas for surreal and electronic impressionism....more
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