It’s so long ago that I crossed paths with Gaeya that I’ve only written about her once in Nordic Music Central, in December 2021 just after we’ve got going – and she made it straight into the Singles of the Year listing for that year, although I did write about previous singles and EPs for other publications.
She described herself then, and still does, as a ‘world beat’ artist (pop or rock music blended with world music or traditional music) and she carries a mighty sword not only for environmentalism and sustainability but even more so for “delivering connection amid an increasingly disconnected world.”
“We do this for the earth” is her mantra.
And it’s intriguing that she uses lower case for ‘earth’, suggesting a focus on soil, ground, plants and trees rather than the grand plans of organisations that endlessly parrot how they are ‘saving the planet’ with windmills, stacks and stacks of solar panels and heat pumps.
She’s of the coal face, not the corporate HQ or the global pressure group.
And she does so through a succession of ambient soundscapes and evocative vocals, often employing analogue synthesisers, which can sound like ancient Scandinavian instruments.
She’s back with a new EP, her first I believe since 2021’s ‘Awakening’, and this one is entitled ‘Growth’. It will be released on June 19th, in time for Midsummer celebrations. I’m not sure if that means cavorting at dawn at Stonehenge or Glastonbury Tor but somehow I wouldn’t be surprised.
She has also released this new single and video today, April 30th, ‘Higher Ground’, at the time of the celebration of the arrival of spring (Walpurgis night), which is popular in the Scandinavia countries, including Sweden, where it is known as Valborg.
It’s a sort of part Christian part Pagan festival if I understand it correctly, with a fair bit of mysticism involved.
In the song Gaeya again makes her case for committing to a journey for positive change, meaning junking the world’s catastrophic inclinations in favour of safety and security for all. I hope it makes it onto the Donald’s private Spotify playlist. We’ll do our best to make that happen!
(And Gaeya is about to make her inaugural tour of the USA so perhaps we should make a gig in the new White House Ballroom a priority, too).
Replete with the optimism we have come to expect of Gaeya I can best describe ‘Higher Ground’ as a restrained banger. She isn’t one for the ritual explosion of emotion like a volcano blowing its top; rather she allows those emotions to bubble beneath the surface like a geyser which occasionally gushes and then settles back again as its surveys its impact.
And coincidentally, the video here was been filmed on Mount Teide in Tenerife, which actually is a dormant volcano and one that provided her with the higher ground she needed to support her message in the song.
And that message as I see it is to take whatever opportunity you are offered to channel your power into positive change rather than into pointless negativity and angst.
I can’t help but compare her with the Brazilian Alexia Evellyn in so many ways, especially the use of tribal drums and the way this video – by Gaeya and Anders Rane – was put together. She might be her Nordic twin.
And they’d make for a phenomenal double act.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gaeyamusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gaeyamusic
