Digvalley (with Atella) – The Gun (single)

A quick return for the Norwegian Digvalley, who is from the wonderfully named village of Odda near Bergen.

Digvalley (Eirik Bøen Gravdal) evidently enjoys a collaboration or two. The last one was with Kitsuné (French-Japanese label) producer Relayer, aka Adrien Saura and this one is with Atella, an electronic music duo comprising Johannes Hallanger (who is prominent here) and Magnus Lauritzen who derive inspiration from classic sci-fi movies , cartoons and contemporary science and engage in a range of musical styles including Synth Pop, Disco, House and Techno. They’ve worked with the “warrior princess” as they call her, Aurora and have collaborated with Digvalley several times previously.

The song this time is ‘The Gun,’ which was inspired by the award-winning short film “UNGENE”.

When I first saw that title I immediately thought of Aurora’s ‘Murder Song (5,4,3,2,1)’ and wondered if this was another collaboration with her but it turns out it is “about being lonely, abandoned and afraid” and specifically concerns a child being left ‘home alone.’

There’s no hint of disco, house or techno here, it’s a slowly building and quite atmospheric ballad in which you don’t even notice the synthesisers until the last 30 seconds or so (but then you really do).

The lyrics resonate but at the same time remain a little mysterious. I’m not sure what exactly the significance of the gun is, whether it is real or a metaphor for something else and there is a shed load of beseeching to “take it away”. Has the loneliness gotten to be too much to take any longer? That’s quite a depressing outlook and it stands in contrast to the previous single, which was a little more upbeat musically although not necessarily lyrically and also dealt with loneliness, which seems to be a popular theme.

It seems the song attracted several labels but on account of a contract signed with Ingrooves to release songs via their own label, Ifyouliketake Records, and support from Music Norway, they chose to do it that way.

It’s streamed in various ways but I’ve chosen the Bandcamp option here as proceeds from sales will go to Unicef and their work for the children and families in Ukraine. Nice to hear.

‘The Gun’ was released on March 4th.

https://digvalley.bandcamp.com/track/the-gun-with-atella