Kelly Lee Owens has announced her new EP ‘Kelly’ and shared the first single ‘Ascend’ – listen to it below.
It is the first new music from the Welsh electronic producer and musician since her fourth album ‘Dreamstate’ in October last year, and the EP will be released on November 21 – you can pre-order it here.
The first taste of the new material is ‘Ascend’, an anxious, urgent track that makes use of deep bass and echoey vocals to establish tension as it builds to a huge, trance-like climax.
Listen to ‘Ascend’ here:
Speaking about ‘Kelly’, Owens has said: “This EP is about embodying sound and those collective, physical experiences we only really have in clubs or at music events. Sonically, it’s very visceral.”
“I’ve been drawn to sounds that sit on the edge: ominous, uneasy, sometimes even uncomfortable. That’s just where I’ve been emotionally, and I think the world reflects that too. There’s this constant push and pull between wanting to rise above the chaos, and sometimes, willingly sinking into it.”
Last year, Owens spoke to NME about ‘Dreamstate’, explaining: “Ultimately it’s arriving at a place in my life where I accept who I am, and the parts of me that had been shamed before: it’s derogatory to be a daydreamer, and actually the happiest parts of myself are when I’m either in those states alone, or those states alone allow me to come together with other people in those states.”
She continued: “It’s the thing that I almost enjoy the most about being human, ironically, is finding a dreamstate, and I feel on a bigger collective level, it’s also what’s needed most as a reminder of the importance of taking the time away to dream and to be in that place. Music, for me, has always been a direct door to get to a dreamstate.”
NME awarded the album the full five stars, writing: “A complete and resounding success, ‘Dreamstate’ offers one of the most emotionally engrossing collections of electronic music you’ll hear this year. In a world that can feel increasingly murky, impenetrable and lightless, Kelly Lee Owens’ latest cuts through the mire with a lucid and masterful vision; its profound luminescence will set your soul soaring.”
Earlier this year, Owens spoke about the current state of electronic music amid the challenging time for small venues and clubs. “I always think of Depeche Mode, they were on the tube with their synths coming to these small venues,” she said. “I always think like without small venues, you wouldn’t have Depeche Mode, which is a world like not really worth living in!”
“So I think there’s a responsibility when it comes to everyone – from the booking agents to ticketing companies – they need to be investing back into these venues so that the up-and-coming people have a place to be.”
