21 year old Elena Tonra aka Daughter has spent the past few weeks holed-up with Igor (her boyfriend and live guitarist) working on new material and this evening she has unveiled her debut EP ‘His Young Heart’ and it’s now streaming over at her Bandcamp and Soundcloud pages.
The EP is self-recorded/ self-released and features four brand new tracks ‘Landfill’, ‘The Woods’, ‘Candles’ and ‘Switzerland’. We’ve made the opening track ‘Landfill’ available as a free download get it below.
Self-recorded in a cramped North London warehouse (alongside boyfriend Igor Haefeli) and self-released, ‘His Young Heart’ is a collection of intimate recordings that offer a brief glimpse at the raw, untainted potential of a young songwriter.
From the blistered hostility of ‘Landfill’ to ‘The Woods’fragile resignation, ‘His Young Heart’ is a simple, beautiful snapshot of Daughter’s tender years.
Having made a series of demo tracks available at the end of 2010 via her social network pages, Daughter slowly began to collect fans as these tracks were gradually shared amongst enthusiastic friends and bloggers.
As the support grew Elena found herself moving – slowly, at first – up The Hype Machine.Within a month – and as the momentum grew – she’d reached #3 in the Most Popular Song Chart and subsequently saw her first national radio play (BBC 6 Music w/ Tom Robinson) and radio session (BBC London w/ Jo Good). The Independent’s Barometer column subsequently noting of her “beautifully-sung, literary folk” and her “ethereal melancholy” as they tipped her as a One to Watch.
The delicate tangled roots of these early demos and the new ‘His Young Heart’ EP draw from a variety of songwriting sources; from Joni Mitchell and Natasha Khan right through to the XX and Jonsi Birgisson.
Recent support shows in London with the likes of Lia Ices, Sharon Van Etten and Marcus Foster brought Daughter in-front of a new crowd and and her reticent, yet beautiful, performances rendered crowds silent to a note.
Last month she played her largest show to date, a sold-out night at St Stephens Church in Shepherd’s Bush with Matthew & The Atlas and Ben Howard. She walked off stage to a standing ovation.
To mark the EP’s release Elena is going to be playing her debut headline show at The Slaughtered Lamb in London on the 20th April. Tickets have just gone on sale and fans can grab them from here… http://www.wegottickets.com/event/113911
Further confirmed shows over the spring/ summer include…
20th April – ‘His Young Heart’ EP launch @ Slaughtered Lamb, London
27th April – The River Fleet night @ Old St Pancras Church, London
14th May – Fishbowl @ Great Escape Festival, Brighton
14th May – Life @ Great Escape Festival, Brighton
8th July – Lounge On The Farm Festival
Elena played her biggest show to-date last month supporting Matthew & The Atlas at a sold-out St Stephens Church in Shepherd Bush. There’s a really lovely video that’s been made of Elena’s performance of ‘Run’ which you can see here: http://vimeo.com/21308997
