The very talented Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Kathrine Shepard aka SYLVAINE released today her new album entitled “Nova”!
Following her 2018 “Atoms Aligned Coming Undone” release, SYLVAINE (a play on the name of one of her beloved French poets, Paul Verlaine) gives us “Nova”, an album that is both a musical and personal reawakening of a singer/composer finding her way in this world.
The Lord of the Rings type choir arrangement heralds in the opening of her latest release as we the entranced listeners follow her to the realm of Lothlorien. The creation of this ambitious release began in 2019, before the world changed before all of our eyes. Experiencing a personal loss in a time the world was suffering a collective loss, SYLVAINE composed on her guitar and wrote in her notebooks, eventually leading her into the small rooms of Drudenhaus in early 2021. Sequestered away in the countryside of France, the Norwegian native and her musical cohorts would all contract Covid. Asthmatic since birth, our heroine isolated herself in a small room to score out the different soprano and alto melodies of an actual choir to make her vision for the opening track “Nova”, come to life. Sung in an imagined language, the syllables of NO-VA continued to emerge, suggesting to the singer something linguistically symbolic and important.
Naked on the cover, which may raise some eyebrows, SYLVAINE insists to her fans that this is a symbol of her own vulnerability and personal rebirth that transpired over these years of creating ‘Nova’. “Nova” in terms of language is connected to words such as nuova (Italian) or nueva (Spanish), meaning ‘new’ and speaks to a rebirth, to loss, the temporality of life, grieving as nothing lasting forever, but looking forward as new doors are forever opening.
In other news, SYLVAINE announced brand new European tour dates together with FVNERALS.
SYLVAINE 2022
02 Mar 22 Paris (FR) Nouveau Casino (Nova Release Show)
05 Mar 22 Wervik (BE) Oosthove (+Thurisaz)
14 Apr 22 Oslo (NO) Inferno Festival
27 Jul 22 Tolmin (SI) Metal Days Festival
SYLVAINE & FVNERALS
07.12.2022 – Oslo (NO) – Krøsset
08.12.2022 – Stockholm (SE) – Hus7
09.12.2022 – Copenhagen (DK) – Pumpehuset
10.12.2022 – Berlin (DE) – DEMD Festival
11.12.2022 – Leipzig (DE) Moritzbastei
12.12.2022 – Brno (CZ) – Melodka
13.12.2022 – Vienna (AT) – Arena
14.12.2022 – Nürnberg (DE) – Z Bau – Galerie
15.12.2022 – Zurich (CH) – Dynamo Werk 21
16.12.2022 – Lyon (FR) – CCO
17.12.2022 – Brussel (BE) – JeugdKlub Paddestoel
18.12.2022 – Eindhoven (NL) – Dynamo
“Nova” tracklisting:
- Nova
- Mono No Aware
- Nowhere, Still Somewhere
- Fortapt
- I Close My Eyes So I Can See
- Everything Must Come To An End
Bonus track - Dissolution
You can listen to the full album below:
