Skalitzer Straße 85-86, Berlin Kreuzberg
Genre: Folk
Featuring a blend of acoustic instruments, rural soundscapes, and wistful vocals, Great Lake Swimmers are a critically acclaimed indie-folk group led by songwriter/vocalist Tony Dekker. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the group emerged in the early 2000s with a succession of heavily atmospheric albums recorded in old silos and rural country churches. The music developed in that pastoral warmth, performed and recorded in acoustically unique and historical locales with a revolving cast of personnel. They are renowned for their homespun folk and lush, intimate Americana in their live set.
Great Lake Swimmers celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2023 with “Uncertain Country,” an album where doubts are followed by discovery, demos end up as finished tracks, and themes of new beginnings, rear-view reflections, and ruminations on the fluidity of time form the basis of the eleven new songs.
It follows a prolonged period of collective anxiety. Recorded in different locales—and with a variety of musicians—a theme of questioning runs throughout. Even before the world turned upside down, Dekker felt mired in uncertainty: from the climate crisis to the ever-changing political landscape. The “uncertain country” chosen as the album’s theme is not a specific place. Rather, it’s a territory we, as humans, inhabit in the 21st century — a world that, more often than not, is confusing, unfamiliar and unsettling.
This summer, the Dutch/Croatian artist Eerie Wanda will release Internal Radio, her third album and second for Joyful Noise. Visual artist and musician Marina Tadic writes the songs, and is joined by her partner, Adam Harding (Dumb Numbers, Kidbug), and producer Kramer (Low, Galaxie 500, Ween, Daniel Johnston) on the new album, which was recorded at home in the Netherlands. On these 11 songs, it’s clear that Tadic is becoming the artist she wants to be, working through some things, and even exorcizing a few demons. The album opens with “Sail to the Silver Sun,” which feels like a codeine bath washing over your exhausted soul. “The mystery of life and death is often on my mind,” she says. Whereas her previous albums leaned toward upbeat, guitar-focused pop, Internal Radio sounds like a more experimental, otherworldly, serious grown-up affair, venturing into sensitive emotional territory. The intimate, personal songs here reflect the solitude many of us have felt these past few years, recalling artists such as Lida Husik and Edith Frost.
Tadic, who started writing songs at age 14 when she got her first guitar, takes an intuitive approach to making music. “I will forever be fascinated by ideas and where they come from,” she says. “It’s magical how we can get this little seed of an idea and when giving it attention it grows into a whole new universe.” On Internal Radio, she wanted to tune in to her deepest feelings and create something which sounded new to her. Allowing herself to confront some darker emotions, previously pushed aside, yielded many of the songs. She’s also into paranormal phenomena like near death experiences, telepathy, and UFOs, and those things impact the music she makes as well. Without a full band and instead using haunting, ethereal spaces, she has really found her “weird inner world.” “It has been a real joy to work with Kramer because he knows and feels the heart of a song and has amazing stuff to add,” she says.
“Working with a band can be fun but I wanted to stay in my vibe this time,” says Tadic. This album is more personal because it draws on her own experience, while on previous material she relied more on storytelling. She also wanted to experiment more with sounds for Internal Radio, giving each individual track a custom sound.
Tadic is also becoming more confident in knowing and creating what she wants, trusting her gut when it comes to what things sound like. “I’m in a phase where I’m more in touch with my own visions,” she says. “I feel more grounded and I care less about other people’s opinions, and I just want to immerse myself with beauty and love and project it out into the world.”
-Gail O’Hara
