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UID:abaa44ea-fdc6-4e31-989c-1cd5dc995b7d@360exp.net
SEQUENCE:29842637
DTSTAMP:20260928T081811Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260928T011734Z
DTSTART:20261119T190000Z
DTEND:20261119T225900Z
SUMMARY:Elder Island
LOCATION:Heimathafen Neukoelln Im Saalbau
DESCRIPTION:2026\nWhen Elder Island went into the studio to record the foll
 owup to their critically acclaimed 2021 album\, Swimming Static\, they wer
 e determined to “turn everything on its head”. The trio are celebrated
  for their brooding indie-electronica that draws on their Bristol roots\, 
 creating vastly detailed and immersive soundscapes. But Hello Baby Okay ma
 rks a new era for the band\, fuelled by a longing for transcendence and eu
 phoria. An effervescent counterpoint to the current times\, their new musi
 c is threaded through with a liberated energy\, lilting funk-pop guitars\,
  danceable beats and a renewed sense of play. “We wanted the joy to shin
 e through\,” they say.\nElder Island’s Katy Sargent (vocals\, cello)\,
  Luke Thornton (bass\, beat-making) and David Havard (guitar\, synths\, pr
 ogramming) have spent the past decade building a dedicated fanbase on both
  sides of the Atlantic\, with over 375 million streams worldwide. They’r
 e firm festival favourites who’ve played at prestigious venues from Lond
 on’s Roundhouse to New York’s Bowery Ballroom and who hold the unique 
 ability to straddle both the live and club worlds: in 2022\, they pricked 
 the ears of superstar DJs like Solomun\, who personally invited them to sp
 in at his Printworks takeover. Across two studio albums and myriad EPs\, t
 hey’ve crafted a genre-blurring sound world that draws on a sublime comb
 ination of strings\, far-flung percussion\, intricate loops and abstract l
 yrics.\nBut in the lead up to writing their third release\, Hello Baby Oka
 y\, Elder Island had been wrestling with a disillusionment they hadn’t b
 efore felt in their 12 years together as a band. The pandemic had upended 
 their mammoth tour schedule and threatened to “flatline” the band fina
 ncially\, and they were under intense pressure to make music when they lon
 ged for space to recharge. For a time\, they weren’t sure if and how the
 y would continue. “I think it’s fair to say that none of us were in a 
 great place when we started this album\,” says Katy. “We needed to sto
 p and reassess what was important to us as a band beyond churning out endl
 ess content.”\nTime for a creative reset. While Swimming Static was dens
 ely constructed\, with instrumentation meticulously layered in the editing
  suite\, its followup was a totally different process where “we did the 
 complete opposite\,” says Katy. When they went into the studio in 2023\,
  they went back to their roots with free-flowing jam sessions\, rekindling
  their sense of spontaneity while channeling the warm embrace of the dance
 floor. “Our sound got pigeonholed into a chillout coffee-shop playlist s
 pace\,” says Luke\, but in fact\, David continues\, “DJ culture has be
 en heavily influential on our approach to music.”\nIt’s a large part o
 f why they’ve put out two remix albums\, with retooled songs from the li
 kes of underground heroes Elkka\, Batu and Matthew Dear. The band structur
 e their live shows like a DJ set too\, with momentum building gradually to
 wards a giddy release\, inspired by the marathon sets of masterful selecto
 rs like Theo Parrish. “We’ve all grown up partying together in Bristol
 \,” says David. “We would go out all the time\, buy records\, and that
 ’s bled into the writing and arrangement of tracks and the way we blend 
 them live.” The result\, say Elder Island\, often surprises their fans. 
 “People come to the shows and tell us that they weren’t expecting it t
 o be so upbeat\,” Luke adds. “But we want to ramp it up so that everyo
 ne can have loads of fun and dance.”\nTheir trademark attention to detai
 l is still present\, each song its own standalone story in Elder Island’
 s cinematic universe\, but the songwriting on Hello Baby Okay is more dire
 ct. “We were inspired by a lot of Nineties house music and club classics
 \, where the simplicity of the hook and a clear message is front and centr
 e\,” says David. In other words\, they’ve leaned into anthemic choruse
 s and big singalong moments. Katy was drawn to the key threads of solid\, 
 assured relationships and commitment\, which feel in line with latter-day 
 Robyn or Hot Chip’s One Life Stand. “It’s about a mature love\, an e
 nduring love that you’ve worked on\,” she explains. Lead single ‘Ord
 inary Love’ is Elder Island at their finest – smouldering\, atmospheri
 c\, irresistibly rhythmic – and is where hedonism meets devotion. It’s
  as emotionally charged as it is danceable – and it might also be the on
 ly driving garage-house track to draw inspiration from Casablanca and The 
 Lord of the Rings.\n“The turmoil at the end of Casablanca is: which guy 
 is she going to pick\,” says Luke\, “and in the end Humphrey Bogart’
 s character goes against his desires and decides that she should stay with
  her husband.” Katy continues: “And in Lord of the Rings\, everybody a
 lways fancied Legolas and Aragorn. But if you were going to choose someone
  to spend the rest of your life with\, it would be Sam. He’s an earthy\,
  grounded guy and he saves the whole saga. The concept of ‘Ordinary Love
 ’ is about making the right decision of who to be with\, with your head 
 and your heart.”\n‘Snapshot’\, meanwhile\, is the band’s first tru
 e love song\, a stripped-back house track that charges forward with fidget
 y polyrhythms recalling minimalism pioneer Steve Reich\, while a serene st
 ring ensemble surges over the top. Katy says she’d shied away from writi
 ng about love before because she “didn’t want people to know what I wa
 s writing about\,” she explains. “I would make it very convoluted and 
 bring in multiple themes\, so you couldn’t really work it out. But over 
 the course of making this album\, our favourite motto was the old design m
 otto: K.I.S.S – keep it simple\, stupid. There was a simplicity in writi
 ng a love song.”\nEach track on Hello Baby Okay is developed with an inn
 ovative and visceral sound design that echoes its theme\, befitting of the
  band’s background in fine art\, photography and graphic design. ‘Fast
 er Faster’ is inspired both by a Picasso of a cat and a lobster in a fig
 ht\, the funkiness of African disco 12-inches and the compressed vocals of
  Bollywood soundtracks\, emphasising the painting’s fun-spirited edge. O
 r there’s the sunny soul-pop of ‘Pink Lemon’\, which is about escapi
 ng monotony\, says Katy\, and dreaming of being whisked away from the ever
 yday: “I wanted it to sound like those old analogue holiday photographs 
 where there’s a glare on the image\, a bit of light and warmth\,” she 
 says.\nBut with lightness must come dark. Penultimate track ‘Bigger Than
  Us’ – the album’s “unsung hero\,” as Luke says – balances a d
 owntempo beat with hopeful lyrics: “to romanticise the world is to be wi
 ld and awake”. ‘White Corridor’ is a slice of phantasmagoric trip-ho
 p. And ‘Bang’ is the band at their most theatrical\, taking its cues f
 rom Sixties psychedelia\, film soundtracks and the BBC’s Uncanny podcast
 . “It’s hypnotic in its arrangement\,” says Dave\, and sounds not un
 like Kraftwerk at a ghostly go-go disco. The track has the faint echo of a
  theremin\, cello and contrabassoon\, which Luke and Katy recorded in a sp
 ooky location in Bristol. “The song is about a clairvoyant\, so we decid
 ed to lean into the horror and record these instruments in a crypt\,” Lu
 ke explains.\nIt all comes back to Hello Baby Okay’s guiding principle o
 f playfulness. Call it the playful principle\, if you like. It’s the sou
 nd of a band having newfound fun and trying to lift each other up when the
  world can bring you down. “We try to instil hope in a lot of the tracks
 \,” says Katy. “Life can be so tough and I want our music to have a si
 lver lining that helps get you through.”\n\nBoletos: https://ra.co/event
 s/2489756
URL;VALUE=URI:https://360exp.net/events/abaa44ea-fdc6-4e31-989c-1cd5dc995b7
 d
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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