NOÊTA

Elm PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS

Bleak, spectral wonder from the dark heart of Scandinavia

Dark ambient minimalists Noêta are a collaboration between Norwegian vocalist/musician Êlea and Swedish multiinstrumentalist Ândris. A haunting, sombrely emotive affair, Elm is named after, and emotionally bound to poet Sylvia Plath’s expression of unrequited love, a work passed into legend as her final piece of writing before her tragic suicide. The delicately finger-picked acoustic guitar of Dawn

Falls is a solitary accompaniment to Êlea’s ethereal vocals, before the instrumentation of

As I Fall Silent gradually broadens with strings and menacing distortion looming in the background. Foreboding synth introduces the mournful strings of Above And Below as Êlea’s vocal range reach the higher echelons. The record closes with Elm and

Elm II, their funereal aura and whispered urgency bleeding into abstraction, as spacey echoes and doom-ridden portent close out a personal and introspective journey. ■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Emma

Ruth Rundle, Anna von Hausswolf, Chelsea Wolfe

TOM O’BOYLE