Greek-born artist Irene Skylakaki releases her latest album Souvenir today, an eclectic 11-track collection of experimental, alternative-folk songs. The album is Skylakaki’s fourth full-length project to date proving that she is an experienced musician and performer, yet she admits that her album lacks consistency, making it feel much more like a first album than a fourth.
Irene explains that:
“We had a lot of musicians and friends contributing their talent over the years and the album lacks homogeneity in sound but is connected through a deeper cause: recording individual songs that we are happy with irrespective of their style.”
In most cases, this would be a critique of the project, but it’s actually one of the stand-out qualities of Souvenir, each track is a wonderfully detailed, intimate and relatable story with its own characters, plot and production style. There are some similarities in instrumentation though, Irene has been known to love the impact of a full backing choir, eerie synths and gliding guitar chords to accentuate her distinctive, high and haunting vocals, which are the focus throughout.
By playing to her strengths as a songwriter known and loved for disarmingly personal lyricism and abstract outlook, Irene Skylakaki’s Souvenir is an album well worth listening to, if not for its intimate and highly relatable lyrics then for its otherworldly sound and fresh and exciting take on traditional folk music.
You can stream 'Souvenir' everywhere here.
Follow Irene: Twitter
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