Kira Skov
It's my freedom call, it's my freedom roar...
A rejuvenated Kira Skov liberates listeners from winter’s seasonal gloom on MY HEART IS A MOUN- TAIN – her new album with a heart so full of promise it leaves mere mortals breathless. After last year’s appearance on Danish TV’s Top of the Pops, a revitali- zed Kira seems armed with a desire to embrace life and the ever-changing new normal of the present, while provoking healthy existential reflection in her lyrics.
Her voice has never been stronger, and it becomes
immediately apparent that her days of heartbreak
and sorrow seem to be fewer and further from one
another. The grief and loss she explored in her
songwriting have been part of a natural, necessary
process since the tragic night in February of 2017 that
robbed Kira of her husband and their son of his father.
But even the longest night’s journey through unrelen- ting darkness eventually meets its end. And at the dawn of a new day, as the morning sun warms, thaws, and instills contagious optimism for life, we’re reminded that there are more adventures on the horizon – and mountains yet to be climbed.
And that’s where we meet Kira on MY HEART IS A MOUNTAIN. She’s on an expedition, merging new faces and ideas with the familiar while allowing the bittersweet and tragic memories of the past to stay just there. Her focus is now squarely on the present – and future. Her other half, Silas Tinglef (Howl Baby Howl, Niels Skousen, Mellemblond), as well as master producer and performer John Parish, remain sparring partners as instrumentalists and in production roles, and the caravan’s journey has taken them to Real World Studios.
But even the longest night’s journey through unrelen- ting darkness eventually meets its end. And at the dawn of a new day, as the morning sun warms, thaws, and instills contagious optimism for life, we’re reminded that there are more adventures on the horizon – and mountains yet to be climbed.
And that’s where we meet Kira on MY HEART IS A MOUNTAIN. She’s on an expedition, merging new faces and ideas with the familiar while allowing the bittersweet and tragic memories of the past to stay just there. Her focus is now squarely on the present – and future. Her other half, Silas Tinglef (Howl Baby Howl, Niels Skousen, Mellemblond), as well as master producer and performer John Parish, remain sparring partners as instrumentalists and in production roles, and the caravan’s journey has taken them to Real World Studios.
The fabled oasis of ethereal music built by Peter Gabriel in an old watermill in the small town of Box in South West England is one of the most iconic studios on Earth, radia- ting with holistic vibes and featuring a literal babbling brook. It’s also where Head (PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithfull), whose work with John Parish dates back to their early days in Bristol, mixed most of the material for the new album.
Kira’s music reaches new heights as she soars in this bold and fresh creative context. She’s emerged from the shadows that maintained a presence on her past few albums, and now offers us bright, sonic beams of light, as well as a renewed appreciation for and reflections on the beauty of life and love in her lyrics.
The band features a new bassist in the form of Billy Fuller, known from the band Beak, and his long-standing colla- boration with Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin, Alison Krauss). Also on board are guitarist Oliver Hoiness, violinist Maria Jagd, and vocalist Mette Lindberg (The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, X Factor) who lends her voice to a charismatic duet with her good friend.
The new album is also a new beginning. Kira pivots from dedicated self-reflection on her last album, the pandemic period project SPIRIT TREE which was built on the concept of community and featured duets with Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Steen Jørgensen, Marie Fisker, and even Lenny Kaye (known from his work with Patti Smith). MY HEART IS A MOUNTAIN was forged in an English sanctua- ry studio straight out of a fairy tale but has its roots in her home in Copenhagen.
There, in her modest yet magical house, Kira is in constant collaboration with Silas Tinglef – her partner in life, love, and song – as they navigate through parenthood and productions, meals, and music. At any moment, guitars can come down off the walls; voice memos and demos are recorded, explored, and expanded upon; and the small studio in the shed out back is fired up, with Silas behind the faders. This is how many songs are born here.
MY HEART IS A MOUNTAIN is a necessary album in, of, and for our times, and a daring vehicle for Kira to address life’s great paradoxes with her dazzling vocal instrument. She explores the unbearable lightness of being on Rocks – a tune which she calls her Jack Kerouac-influenced haiku-inspired poem, but also a rippling psychedelic gem for listeners, where guitars and John Parish’s balafon create a soothing trickle of a stream flowing gently beneath the vocals.
We get to the root of hypocrisy in Conspiracy and Oppres- sive Consensus, where we can no longer shield ourselves against a voracious virus, but must stand up to fear, hate speech, and the very real risk of taking a step in the wrong direction. There’s plenty to write about, and sing for, as she references “the conspiracies and distortions, the insanity of war, and the virus eating us alive, I just want to sit here, and die in my own time.” Here, Kira reinvents the artist's natural duty to lend voice to indignation and ask the necessary questions, however unpopular they might seem or sound in the moment.
MY HEART IS A MOUNTAIN is a statement of truth, but perhaps also – as she sings in Girls – an invitation to “women who are still girls, to girls who become women. To everyone who feels like a girl, to boys who become girls, to boys who love girls and girls who love boys, and to all those who dance in the shadows in between.”
Join Kira as she welcomes listeners out of the shadows and into the light and promise of a new day.