Elin Synnøve Bråthen

Norway

Description

ELIKSIR - THE VOICE OF THE ARCTIC NORTH

STRONG, SWEET & EARTHLY

Eliksir and the album Earthly Things take the listener on an adventurous journey. The 10 tracks move through a wide-stretched musical terrain. Eliksir mixes different musical styles into a sophisticated and melodious expression of her own – the contemporary nostalgia, a potion brewed on elements from Pop, Jazz, Rock, Celtic and World. The music can be associated with the work of other strong female songwriters like Kate Bush, Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell. The lyrics are spun from her dreams, making the images and stories fairytale-like as well as personal. In 2003 she developed the material with band musicians, adding a strong acoustic flavour to the musical textures. In fall 2004 she connected with producer and owner of Siddhartha Records, Oystein Sevag, who embarked on the project - now evolved into this album. After 18 years of running Siddhartha Records, and previously exclusively putting out his own albums, Oystein Sevag now releases Eliksir on his label: “As a singer she has an unusual range of expressions spanning from the powerfully ethnical to the charmingly mild and sweet. As a songwriter she combines the natural melodic with refined compositions full of surprises. This lady has a lot to tell. The versatility is held together by her strong credibility as a singer”, says Oystein Sevag. Distribution for Norway exclusively is through SonyBMG; from January 2008 the distributor in Norway is Musikkoperatorene.

ELIKSIR

Behind the artist name Eliksir we find Elin Synnove Brathen, a girl from small-town northern Norway. Growing up she explored all kinds of musical styles playing different instruments and singing with various ensembles. Eventually she chose the voice as her main instrument and the piano as composing tool and set sails for more urban surroundings, devoting herself to song-writing. She is now based in Oslo. The name Eliksir came about because of a mispronunciation as a child. She called herself Elik instead of Elin, and often spoke about herself in the third person: “Elin says” thus became “Elik sir” in her northern Norwegian accent. Eliksir used with the dictionary meaning – magical potion – describes the music and lyrics well: something strong and sweet with boundary-freeing qualities.

EARTHLY THINGS & DREAMS

The songs for this album were created dreaming while keeping the feet on the ground. The themes are universal – Eliksir writes about things that concern every man and woman: human relations, love, loss, hope. Although melody-making always came effortless, working out the lyrics was hard until Eliksir paid more attention to her dreams. In these she found apt scenarios for lyric-writing. All the lyrics for Earthly Things are carved from her dreams. This goes for the track At the Station where a woman is roaming about at the train station looking for her loved one, as well as for the progressive rock and Arabic influenced Harbour Song, where secret lovers separated by class distinction are fighting the barriers keeping them apart – all set in a desert-like landscape with temples, horses, lanterns and sorcery.

SOUND & MUSICIANS

The sound is modern and at the same time nostalgic, blending programmed ingredients into a warm layer of acoustic instruments. Eliksir has surrounded herself with a collection of accredited musicians. The following four are her present band: Hilmar Kristoffersen: keyboards, grand piano and vintage synthesizers, Glenn Phillip Nilsen: bass, Trygve Tambs-Lyche: drums and percussion, and Haldor Royne: guitars. Internationally well-known musicians such as Bendik Hofseth on additional vocals, accordion-player Kristin Skaare and cello-player Aage Kvalbein have added great touches to some of the songs on this album. Oystein Sevag has contributed with programming and keyboards. One of the songs include sound samples of whales, dolphins and the Atlantic, collected from the Azorean whale watching base Espaço Talassa. The arrangements have been developed in collaboration with the musicians and producer Sevag. All vocal arrangements are done by Eliksir.

ELIKSIR GOING ABROAD

Eliksir was introduced to different foreign record companies and distributors in Cannes and Berlin (Midem & Popkomm) in 2007, who have responded very positively to her material. The Hong Kong record company Silk Road will be releasing Earthly Things in the south-eastern Asian territory in 2008. Eliksir is currently recording a bonus track in Chinese (a traditional Chinese song) for their licensed edition. In the meantime the Hong Kong label has licensed the track Fairytale for a trade sampler and compilation. The music video for the bittersweet Fairytale can be viewed on www.myspace.com/eliksir or www.eliksir.org. The video is made by Harald Sando at Glamfish Productions. Secondly, she is collaborating with Capital Music and Media in Berlin to put together a tour and promotion in Germany this fall as the record will be distributed in Germany and Switzerland. Thirdly the record is being promoted in the Netherlands through IEP, focusing on airplay of two singles from the album. Finally Eliksir is nominated in the category "Best International Artist" by Exposure Music Awards UK for the song "Harbour Song".

REVIEWS ON EARTHLY THINGS:

Zobb Music Magazine: She clearly means every word she sings, and she sings about personal and intimate things. Earthly Things is a strong collection of songs that allows the listener to paint his or her own pictures. The songs convey feelings of pain, longing and sorrow, but also optimism and pleasure. Maybe these songs demand too much of the audience of little Norway, but I believe that many will find this music both exotic and intriguing outside our country borders.

Track review by Jon A. Arnesen for Magic Mirror:

Harbour Song is a showcase of vocal and melodic strength beyond the mixture of Celtic Progressive Rock New-Age Jazz, way beyond the ability of still obvious references such as Loreena McKennitt and the legendary Bulgarian Norwegian singer Radka Toneff. It is a bit bitter to see how the voices of Silje Nergaard and Rebekka Bakken reach beyond the borders of Norway, when this extreme talent is pretty much a well kept secret, even from Norwegian ears. Pretentious artist name until you hear her voice, a true elixir hereby prescribed.

Album review on Earthly Things by Gerry Casey at Studio7 Ireland for The Irish World, London, UK:

“I save a raindrop from sinking in the sand” – the first line of Eliksir’s (Elin Synnove Brathen) opening track, Raindrop Song from her stunning debut album “Earthly Things”. A track in which the Norwegian singer / songwriter introduces us to the element of water that ebbs and flows so effortlessly throughout this wonderful collection of songs, mixing as it does elements of Pop, Jazz, Rock, Celtic and World music; A mixture that she herself describes as “a potion of contemporary nostalgia”. And a most potent potion it certainly is. (…) An amazingly talented Composer / Singer / Songwriter, herself hauntingly beautiful with such an incredible voice, she can most certainly take her place among the top contemporary female artists of today - or any day for that matter.

Link to full review as posted in Rave Magazine, Helium & Muse: http://studio7ireland.vox.com

AIRPLAY & FEATURES:

Live TV-performance (NORWAY) on TV2 (National): You Must Fly

P3 National Radio (NORWAY): Harbour Song

City Radio of Tonsberg (NORWAY): War for Your Love & At the Station

Artic Mist Radio (SPAIN) Feel It, Harbour Song & At the Station (Radio Edit)

Bob Cochran’s Radio Show WMPG CMJ (USA) Into the Gloom, You Must Fly & Earthly Things

AMMA An’R-catalogue, issue no 27 (AUSTRALIA). Tracks on compilation: Feel It & Raindrop Song

Compilation / Sampler (HONG KONG): Fairytale

Contact for licensing & distribution outside Norway:

Pedro M. Pereira

export@sevag.com