IAMTHEMORNING’S CHRISTMAS SONGS
Russian duo celebrate the end of 2020 with a mix of new and traditional tracks on EP.
Russian duo Iamthemorning will self-release a new EP, Counting The Ghosts, on December 4. The fourtrack features two brand new songs and two covers of traditional Christmas choral pieces.
“We wanted to release a Christmas-themed EP, but we didn’t want it to be cheesy,” explains vocalist Marjana Semkina, who is one half of the partnership alongside Gleb Kolyadin. “It’s not straightforwardly festive, more of a celebratory end-of-the-year release. Because, thank God, this year is nearly over!”
Counting The Ghosts was written and recorded in isolation in October across three countries, with Kolyadin in Russia, Semkina in the UK and their sound engineer Vlad Avy – who also plays guitar on the EP – in Canada. “We’re used to doing things this way,” Semkina says. “When we wrote
The Bell, we wrote remotely, sending files to each other.”
Originally intending to release a full covers EP, Iamthemorning ended up writing two new pieces: the title track and Cradle Song.
“The music for Counting The Ghosts was originally written by Gleb for a theatre performance in Russia that didn’t happen, and the lyrics are how I feel about 2020,” Semkina says. “The line: ‘One at a time I’m counting my ghosts’ refers to all the losses we and others have had this year. It also references the ghosts of Christmas – how, at Christmas, everybody remembers their dead relatives.”
For Cradle Song, she was influenced by William Blake’s poem of the same name. “I’ve always been a huge fan,” she says. “I was reading that poem and I realised how beautiful and Christmassy the feel of it was. It’s not deliberately festive, but it has a nice, cosy feeling. My version is a gloomier take!”
The two cover songs are reimaginings of traditional festive songs: 12th-century hymn Veni Veni Emmanuel, where Semkina sings in Latin, and the more modern piece
I Wonder As I Wander.
“Both those songs are very religious, and while I’m not religious, I appreciate that a lot of amazing things can be born out of love to something – even if it’s God,” Semkina says. “They’re not in-your-face Christmas, but a little more obscure. I also chose them because they are challenging to sing – and I like a challenge to conquer.” HMK
“I chose them because they are challenging
to sing – and I like a challenge
to conquer.”