GEA is a Helsinki based ambient group who respects their music in heritage and love electronic sounds, particularly the ambient ones. They are mystical sometimes in their hearings, a bit out of this world, but also very close to the listeners needs, comforting him or her with a warmth joy and happiness into his/her soul throughout their music.
Butterflies is their most anticipated debut LP where you can find some very interesting organic and unorganic tunes and melodies which capture the essence of the Finlandian culture, combined with the electronic sounds of today’s world music reality.
The first track of the album “Followers” brings the most dance full vibe of this LP combining the folk essence with electronic vibes in one mixture that makes a great first impression of their whole musical structure in this album.
On “Pink“, they are bringing their most vulnerable selves, with the singers’ characteristic voice playing around concluding the vastness of our real soul in the track. This is definitely one of my favorite songs on the whole album, but with a few others also leading the way in my most recommended songs.
“Friendship Hoax“, the track following is a sweet, romantic and lustful track full of ambient and folkish sounds making a stand about friendship and how it affects us all.
The fourth song is the raw “Alone“, which drifts you away from reality to a far away land where Bjork and Tori Amos live and everything is full of tranquility, essence and meaning, musically but also lyrically. Even though sometimes we stand out alone, we sometime want to be alone also after all, at least that is what the singer craves for at this moment of the LP.
On “Little Detail“, we can hear a trumpet playing rhythmically in a melancholic tune, which uplifts the melancholic experimental atmosphere of the entire song.
“Wind” is haunting and capturing us in the moment, as the singer has delivered a great soulful interpretation. I highly recommend this one if you want to just get lost in your thoughts as “time is changing ,time is staying still“… words in this song wanted to get away but also get found by each other.
“Steps Out Of Sight” is a smooth romantic track reminding of old lullabies, filling the soul with grace and spirituality, while with “Real You And Me“, the group takes us on an optimistic journey. Feelings of joy in the music but lyrically, the quite opposite effect, as they sing “it hasn’t been fun” but hasn’t it?
Musically it is an anthem of fun and joy, the contrast is what they wanted to bring out in my opinion. A great song to listen to at the start or the end of the day even if you had too much in your mind, this song is reminding us that even though there might be trouble it is not that bad after all.
“Enemy“, the ninth song of the album is sweet and nostalgic, and it reminds us of the track “Steps Out Of Sight” – baby music, lullabies for the young and the older. It is filled with mbient sounds combined with a melancholic mood in a mixture you can hear for your “last stop before home” as they sing.
The album closes with the warmth sounds of the “Butterflies” song, it is sweet, mostly vocal-led with a piano playing in the background, and just the perfect closing track for the album, reminding the listener that hope and sunshine will come again.
With this latest album release, electro/folk pop group GEA really make the listener want to know them better and leaves us impatient for their future music releases, so enjoy Butterflies for now and anticipate more beautiful tunes to come out from GEA in the near future!
Purchase GEA’s Butterflies on their website here.
Words by Nancy Chalkopoulou
