PREMIERE - Monalia - Flying Away
Drawing the the vast fjords and mountainous expanse of Norway's famed Telemark, Monalia is an Oslo-based quintet founded by Rjukan native Terje Halmrast and his bandmates Stine Helén Tunstrøm, Svein Petter Nilssen, Bendik Dræge Orvan and Vegar Eriksfallet. Sharing their latest single, "Flying Away" is a slow, dark and enigmatic single, whose sprawling expanse and wide-reaching textures resonate to their "mountain surf", as they term it. With its stark production spanning through its sustaining reach and the ghostly haunt of vocalist Stine Helén Tunstrøm's darkly choir, their latest track like many, has been inspired by the unusual circumstances surrounding global pandemic. Speaking to the transcendental prose of their latest track, the track came amidst a heart condition suffered by Vegar, their drummer and the pregnancy of their vocalist Stine. With these unusual circumstances, music became an escapist reality for its members and as Stine describes, "you find that life is at its most exciting and harmonious in your own imagination". Speaking at length about the track Terje had this to say about "Flying Away", who returned to the mountains during pandemic:
“It can be a good survival strategy to get through hard times by longing for another world, where there is no sickness, death, worries or evil. We want to take the listener away from the everyday trials and into our musical universe. It started out very acoustic, but along the way, we discovered that the song wanted something more. There was so much room for experimenting, which created a rush of ideas."
You can check out the track below:
Monalia · Flying Away
