A mesmering ode to a spring of love
ELA ORLEANS
Polish-born, Glasgow-based musician Ela Orleans already knows a bit about isolation, given the lockdown mentality she has adopted over the years while composing her haunting looped electronic soundscapes, which she has described as “movies for ears”.
But in a cruel twist of timing, Orleans broke her ankle last autumn and had only just emerged from months in a wheelchair when the pandemic struck.
“Lockdown has been a bit much for me,” she says. “I feel like I haven’t had a chance to socialise since October. And I am struggling now because I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat Florek, whose presence I miss incredibly.
“I turned into a reading machine, from Mcluhan to Murakami. I am a book monster! I have been training my brain, as the cognitive side of it really got affected by being dormant for almost eight months. So I am doing Mensa training, a fast reading course and online French classes four times a week. I think it is easier to get motivated for me than for others because I’ve always worked from home.”
Somehow Orleans has also carved out the time to work on a PHD, compose music for a production at the Polish Theatre in Poznan, work with Paris-based artist Michel Zumpf and indie film director Miranda July and continue her relationship with Glasgow multimedia theatre company Cryp
tic. “Cryptic has been truly brilliant with helping me to survive and now suddenly I have so much work I can’t rest,” she says.
Happily Orleans did have time to record a mesmeric number called In Spring for The Scotsman Sessions, with the evening sun dappling the walls of her flat in Maryhill, Glasgow.
“This is a very difficult but also very inspiring time,” she says. “I chose that song because we didn’t have a chance to have spring – and when I say spring, I mean the spring of thought and compassion and love and understanding and communication. Hopefully it happens soon.”