With Seim, her first album as Quinquis, Émilie Tiersen traces a journey of birth and rebirth. After releasing two albums with her largely acoustic project Tiny Feet (2014's Silent and 2017's As an End to Death), marrying acclaimed multi-instrumentalist/composer Yann Tiersen, and starting a family, she needed to reconnect with herself and her roots. She learned Breton, the language of Brittany, where she was born and raised. She also reclaimed her maiden name as the moniker for her new music, which found her combining forward-looking electronics with songs inspired by the myths, language, and environment of Breton and Ushant (the small island off France's west coast where she and Yann Tiersen reside). Named for the Breton word for sap, Seim's songs hover between nurturing and invigorating, whether on the airy "An Divare" or "Te," which closes the album with pristine acoustic strumming that feels like a homecoming. Sometimes, Seim recalls the approach of Yann Tiersen's later works in its gentle textures and multilingual vocals; "Run," a pastoral recollection of being awoken by a breeze that features Ólavur Jákupsson singing in Faroese, could have appeared on 2019's ALL. However, Seim reveals Quinquis as an artist with a voice all her own. She has a notable gift for expressive electronic arrangements: "Netra Ken," a collaboration with Welsh endurance cyclist and writer Emily Chappell, summons whirring spokes, rushing scenery, and quiet determination. The sense of space throughout Seim is also refreshing and unusual -- where other artists may be tempted to fill every corner of their music with details, Quinquis hones her music so that every element takes on more importance. This minimalism also heightens the eeriness and undercurrent of unease that are some of the album's greatest strengths. With its chilly, echoing synths and skittering electronics, "Adkrog" (Breton for "start again") sounds like Tiersen is calling out to the stars for answers. On "Setu," which invokes Ankou, a servant of death in Breton mythology, and on "Ôg," the tale of a Ushant woman who lost her husband at sea and found help with her baby from the widows of the other 51 men on board, Quinquis transforms melodies that could be from her homeland's traditional folk songs into meditations that feel equally futuristic and timeless. Rivaling Vespertine-era Björk or Colleen's work on A Flame, My Love, A Frequency in its searching and acceptance, unguarded emotion and inventive music, Seim is a special album and an introduction to an artist coming fully into her own.
© Heather Phares /TiVo