Gondwana Records kündigt 'Goodbyes' an, das Debütalbum der estnischen Pianistin und Komponistin Hanakiv, ein wunderschönes, meditatives Klavieralbum mit dem besonderen Gast Alabaster dePlume. "Dies ist ein Album über Heilung. Es geht darum, sich von allem zu verabschieden, das einem nicht mehr dient. In jedem dieser Lieder steckt ein kleiner Abschiedsgruß. Es sind also sehr schöne und notwendige Abschiede". Hanakiv ist eine junge Komponistin und Musikerin aus Estland (die jetzt in London lebt), die meditative, klavierbasierte Ambient-Musik mit Elementen aus der klassischen und elektronischen Musik kreiert. Goodbyes" ist ihr Debütalbum und bezieht sich auf so unterschiedliche Einflüsse wie Tim Hecker, Björk "Vespertine", Kara-Lis Coverdale, Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür und Aphex Twin sowie auf ihr eigenes kulturelles Erbe. Die Musik spielt in der estnischen Kultur eine wichtige Rolle, insbesondere die Chormusik und ihre Traditionen, aber Hanakiv schöpft auch aus ihrer Liebe zur Natur - der schönen estnischen Küste und den Wäldern - und aus ihrer Zeit in Island. Doch erst der Umzug nach London gab ihr die Freiheit, ihre eigene Musik zu machen: "London gab mir die Freiheit und den Mut, wirklich die zu sein, die ich bin (als Mensch und musikalisch)". Ihr Erbe und ihre neue Heimat bieten beide Inspiration für Goodbyes, denn Hanakiv bewegt sich zwischen diesen beiden gegensätzlichen Orten, einer pulsierenden Metropole und einem kleinen Land voller Natur, und lässt sich von beiden inspirieren, während sie ihre eigene Stimme formt. ---------------------------- Hanakiv had an unconventional music education – she started studying music at a school for handbells when she was nine and was part of a handbell ensemble for eight years. Starting on piano at the same time she went on to study composition at high school, and later at the Estonian Academy of Music. Eventually switching to electroacoustic composition, she studied in Reykjavik, and did internships in Malmö, and again Reykjavik before moving to London. She grew up in a musical family and her grandmother was a piano teacher and choir conductor. "I would always ask her to take me to her choir rehearsals. I remember sitting under the grand piano, listening to the choir and just being mesmerised by the sounds. She also teaches in a local music school in the south of Estonia with about ten pianos, and I'd spend a lot of time there as well. I believe this was the starting point for me to get to where I am now. The last two pieces on the album (Home II and Home I) are composed in this same music school, so it feels like a full circle. An early influence was Regina Spektor "the first artist who made me really want to play piano" alongside dream pop and Sigur Rós' as well as Estonian contemporary composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür and Arvo Pärt. Later her studies took her to Reykjavík: "There is this amazing record shop called 12 Tónar in Reykjavik where you can drink espressos and listen to all their vinyls. I spent quite a lot of time there. There is something about Icelandic music that really excited me (the mixture of contemporary electronic sounds with melancholy, emotionality). This is when I started getting more into electronic music, and experimenting outside of classical music". Following a year long break from studying and inspired by making an electroacoustic soundtrack for a friend's abstract video, she was inspired to complete a masters in electroacoustic composition, diving fully into the worlds of sound recording and mixing and focusing on surround sound and how to position and move sounds in space, eventually doing an internship with composer Kent Olofson in Malmö, who works with multi-speaker systems for theatre productions. "I learnt a lot from him and he introduced me to some of my favourite plugins I've used a lot on this album as well." Hanakiv moved to London just as the pandemic hit and found herself trapped, in a big new city, without any network or family and so just concentrated on making music. "I stayed in my room with my basic equipment - keyboard, Korg minilogue, SM 58 and Rode nt1-a microphones, laptop and speakers. I was reading about mixing, and trying out different things and listening to a lot of music to get the sense of the mixes and production and finishing a commission piece for 5.1 multi speaker system at that time so I set up four speakers for quadrophonic surround sound in my room!". She also found her way back to piano - my instrument – and started practicing again, playing the pieces she used to play, but also just improvising, and this was the beginning of what would become her debut album, 'Goodbyes'. "I started appreciating everything about music again (even melody!), and everything just came together naturally, and I arrived to a point where I finally found my voice, and I had something that I wanted to say and share. I composed "Meditation I" first and started with "Goodbye", and all the other pieces are derived from that. Without "Meditation I" there wouldn't be this album. If you listen closely, "Meditation I" starts where "Goodbye" ends; "Meditation II" is born from "Meditation I". But it was meeting Fi Roberts, a sound engineer based at the legendary Strongrom Studios in Shoreditch, London in December 2020 that really brought the album into focus. The pair bonded over an interest in prepared piano and a similar approach to production ideas (a balance of not overdoing it, and letting the songs speak for themselves, but being open to explore) and Fi became a friend but also a confidant and eventually co-producer "Fi has a big impact on this record but I don't know how to really explain that properly. Of course, this album is sonically stunning thanks to her amazing mixes and recording skills, but she also believed in this music so much and it created something very special - that's difficult to measure with words. She just works with heart, and I really appreciate that" This then is 'Goodbyes', the first offering from a major new voice, who offers us a meditative work full of space and tranquillity but also life and friendship and meaning. And we are very proud to welcome her to the Gondwana family. Tracklist 01: Goodbye 02: Meditation III 03: And it felt so nice 04: Lies 05: No Words Left 06: Meditation II 07: Home II 08: Home I