Eleni Era

About

" Sleek and humid electro-acoustic chamber pop "

Hailing from a small Cypriot village, Eleni Era delved into art at an early age: by the age of twelve she was already writing her own music, but it was her move to Berlin at eighteen to study classical voice and piano that paved the way for her to further work on her own songs. Her debut album, ‘Rise Love’ (2019) contains an almost adolescent grievance alternating with hope. Eleni favors a tragic romanticism and a confessional tendency – “I don’t even know the woman you’re in love with” she sings in ‘Not Her’, one of the most personal songs of her debut that speaks about the dilemma of personal identity.

Using both English and her native Greek tongue, her 2021 sophomore album, ‘Younger Heart’, builds on themes of empowered compassion. Eleni Era’s bedsit lyricism is authentic and her chamber pop blends effortlessly with baroque elements, electric-acoustic orchestrations and hints of vintage gospel.  Although her songs are semi-autobiographical  (“I thought I saw a stranger/When I saw you carrying pieces of my younger heart” our narrator sings in the eponymous track), these traits don’t occupy the whole album.

There’s a balance between discovery and reflection that gives colour, like in ‘No Ending to The Wonder’, in which she speaks from a more general point of view, singing “Is there an ending to the wonder/Is there a limit to the love…This is the time to speak no lie”.

There’s a genuine sense of exuberance and it’s an emotion the songstress returns to quite often, sometimes reveling in its joy, other times adding an undercurrent of melancholy. Her dreamy pop single ‘Walk with Me’ was featured in Turkish Netflix series ‘Love 101’ and following its release, Eleni Era teamed up with EDM artist St. Mary to elevate the track’s emotive character.