Seinferð by Lea Kampmann

Seinferð / Slow Motion

It was a few days before Christmas Eve 2022. A heavy blanket of snow covered Hoydalar, in Tórshavn. Teitur and I were recording in the upstairs studio of the old tuberculosis sanatorium and watched snowflakes fall on windowsills, roofs and tree branches around us. My favorite weather is when reality is swept in the silence of snow. I was on sick leave from the conservatory due to stress during that period, feeling dizzy and exhausted all the time, even when lying in bed. But on that snowy day in December, Teitur and I decided to make an album that is a rebellion against the fast-paced world we are living in. An inner rebellion against thinking that one needs to run as fast as others, when it doesn’t feel right to you. I knew that the only way to heal was to allow myself to start living, writing and singing in slow motion. To let the walls around me fall down, and to dare to be me.

I had written a few songs that I brought with me to Teitur this day. Together we gave them some polish and also wrote new songs together. In the end, we had eight songs that felt important to us, and shortly after, we recorded them in Teitur’s studio at the end of January 2023. The guitarist, Aske Frydenlund-Vad, traveled to the Faroe Islands, and Jens L. Thomsen recorded Aske and me as we played acoustic guitars simultaneously without a metronome. Aske’s dedication and fingerpicking, along with our interplay, became a very important part of the album's identity. Another element that I am forever grateful for is the dreamlike string and woodwind arrangements that Teitur wrote and conducted for the songs. Philip Weinrobe mixed the album, and Josh Bonati handled the mastering, both in Brooklyn, New York. In the recordings, we also hear Dexter, the late dog, snoring and breathing next to us. Rain is falling on the roof. The radio is on, and children are playing in the snow outside the window.

Most of the tracks on the album are about love. About lost love, growing love and memories of love once had.

Lea Kampmann is a faroese singer-songwriter based i Copenhagen.