1. Hämärä
2. Ikävä
3. Sä et saa mua
4. Sun oon

Emilia Pennanen from Ocelot recounts the story of how the EP came together and the songwriting process.

“I started to write these songs with piano and vocals around 2010-2011…. Ikävä was one of the first songs I wrote – I guess the song is about longing for something to happen while you are kind of stuck in the middle of depression, anxiety and frustration about the future before going to college. At the time I was in between studying photography and creative writing; more precisely – poetry, so I was in the mood for writing and experimenting with different ways to make music, sing and play piano.  Very raw, clangy, angsty and kinda irritatingly fun. Sonically I was interested in creating repetitive powerful piano chords and free flowing melodies with voice. This was the time when I also was about to move to the UK and later USA, which is why I started to write songs in Finnish – I wanted to write them just for myself, really. Finally after forming the band with Johanna and Satu in 2016 the songs saw daylight. I had written the songs with a lot of space for other elements, so when we arranged the songs with bass and drums, that’s when the songs really came together, sounding full and complete. During these years I have been listening and thinking how the simplest elements give the strongest emotion when making music, texts or art. Such a cliché I know, however, sometimes it’s just like that.”

Advance word on Ocelot

SWIT: Super World Indie Tune Of The Day – “… Hämärä”, a song about endings and beginnings. With a devilishly carefree piano motif, melancholy vocals and percussion that echoes the crashing of the waves as you part at Twilight, it’s a visceral and remarkable song”.

Päivän Biisit: “Hämärä saattaa olla syksyn 2018 ennakkoluulottomin, kaunein ja häiriintynein kotimainen pop-single. Siinä missä moni kotimainen vaihtoehtoartisti seilaa syvällä tuhnuisessa lofi-estetiikassa, tarjoilee helsinkiläinen Ocelot samanlaista ilmavaa tulkintaa kuin kovasti Päivän biiseissä hehkutettu Lac Belot. Siinä missä Lac Belot tarjoilee tummia sulosointuja, haastaa Ocelot kuuntelijaa enemmän, mutta onnistuu hienosti.”

Indie 30 “And as for Pennanen’s anomalous vocals? Those who cannot penetrate her quixotic tonalities will fail to uncover the boundless intuitive beauty on offer and miss out on making a lasting connection with both aural artistry and pop authencity.”

todaytonight1979  “It has a dream dream dream wave that I like a lot, the memories  come back from twenty years ago, to my room, in the middle of summer at 45ºC, when I fainted due to heat shock and mid-afternoon drowsiness, I listened to Spangle Maker by Cocteau Twins”.

Photo by Sanna Lehto

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