Listen: Sea Oleena - "Paths"

15 September 2014, 18:15 | Written by Jon Putnam

(Tracks)

(Sea Oleena)

Autumn is upon us, even as many places are still experiencing summer’s final belches. Here, ostensibly from nowhere, dry brown leaves and acorns galore blanket our sidewalks, a sensory treasure trove for my 2-year-old son.

We covered Montreal singer/songwriter Sea Oleena’s last single, “If I’m”, a few weeks back. I actually referenced similar points of autumn, fallen leaves, and my son. So, I risk sounding repetitive here on her latest beauty, “Paths”, for which I am perfectly comfortable doing so.

Oleena trades in breathy, tenderly swelling folk-inflected dream pop, a structure tailor-made for this approaching time of year. Just as autumn – to me, the most beautiful season – slyly creeps into our lives often seemingly unannounced but ever so welcome, “Paths” tip-toes into existence upon a legato finger-picked guitar, Oleena’s vocals swirled into gauzy, billowed layers.

Oleena’s music is a quiet seashore as high tide washes in; it’s a tousled king bed covered in down comforters, it’s a mound of dry leaves growing leaf by falling leaf. It’s the awe-ridden, humbling moments witnessing a child’s discovery that seem frozen in time but ultimately are all too fleeting.

Shallow is due out on 30 September, courtesy of Lefse Records. Pre-order here.