Listen: Sea Oleena - "If I'm"

12 August 2014, 09:45 | Written by Jon Putnam

(Tracks)

(Sea Oleena)

There is a walking path near me that winds under woods between the back yards of houses and eventually works its way into a town park. Last Autumn, I would walk my then-one-year-old son in his stroller to the park and back. You could hear the rustle of dry leaves, feel the dappling of sun through them, and every so often catch view of a leaf floating and lofting its way down through the air, silently brushing its way off of my coat to the ground.

So it is with Montreal singer-songwriter Sea Oleena’s (née Charlotte Loseth) latest single, “If I’m”, from her upcoming debut full-length, Shallow. Initially backed solely by twinkling piano, Oleena’s delicate vocals tip-toe in and by the time the strings join, you’re hard pressed to both recall how you got to this lovely point or wrest yourself from its billowy grasp.

Oleena deftly works her angelic vocals’ juxtaposition against the guttural buzz of the low-end strings to perfection. The song wondrously and effortlessly moves to its ethereal second half where her voice is draped in reverb and slowly engulfed in a wash of synths, strings, and glistening guitar. The dematerialisation is so tempered and gradual that Oleena has seemingly come and gone before you even noticed she was there.

Shallow is due out on 30 September, courtesy of Lefse Records and may be pre-ordered here.