Album Of The Week: Sea Moya’s “Falmenta”
Hailing from Germany and now based in Montreal, “Kraut Beat Combo” Sea Moya have released their promising debut LP on Majestic Casual Records!
The album was reportedly recorded in the Italian Alps during 2017 just outside the village of Falmenta in a “scenic hide-out, where we chose to set up our everything but professional studio in a mountain hut made of raw stone and wood, inspiring us to zoom out of our daily perspective. Without internet connectivity and constant attachment to the regularity of things we tried to create our own space”. This idyllic reconnection through disconnection comes across in the music, which despite including many electronic elements of samplers and synthesizers, is soaked in earthy psychedelia and gives a feeling like it all stems from natural jamming between friends.
“Falmenta” has a nice mix of songs that range from spaced out sessions to thoughtfully constructed singles with catchy hooks and traditional song structures. The overall style falls next to artists like Jonti, Toro Y Moi, Washed Out, Homeshake and the likes who all approach sampling and styles from many disparate genres through a laid back Indie Rock lens. Even with a full live setup, Sea Moya manages to weave sampled drum and synth loops into their performances without using a click track, which we witnessed at their studio performance for MIMS Radio at the Phi Centre earlier this year. It makes sense that they take inspiration from all over the musical map. Ever since they made the move to Montreal I’ve been seeing them at tons of shows and parties of all sounds and scenes, as if to completely absorb what the city has to offer musically and culturally without trying to box themselves in too quickly.
We were able to catch up with the group to ask them a couple questions about the recording process and what their next plans are in the coming months surrounding their debut’s release.
“Falmenta” was recorded in the Italian Alps during 2017. How long were you there for and what did your day-to-day creative process look like?
Sea Moya: We spent two blocks of around two weeks each up there, hiding in an old mountain cabin tucked away deep in a cozy and sleepy valley. Right outside the romantic village ‘Falmenta’ we were quite isolated without phone reception or internet connectivity. Therefore our days didn’t start off with the daily scan through Facebook, Insta and the likes. It looked more like waking up, doing a little recap of the dreams at night, having a good coffee, picking up a synth, guitar or whatnot and starting to write and record. There was not a lot of distraction which really helped us with keeping up our creative output, plus the stunning beauty of the nature surrounding us inspired a certain mood of relaxation for the album. We don’t have clear roles within the band that are set in stone, therefore enjoyed the freedom to work on whatever part of a song, instrument, concept or lyric we wanted to. Finishing up a track often turns out like a collage of ideas with one of us having the lead on that specific song.
Do you have an upcoming tour lined up for the album?
Sea Moya: We’re actually touring Canada right now! We drove all the way to British Columbia and did a handful of shows already, the main run of shows is lined up on the way back to Montreal starting in Vancouver on October 20th. After playing Montreal on November 3rd (be there or be square) we’re flying off to Europe for an extensive tour there. Our focus will be on Germany as we already played a lot over there and built a bit of a following. For us it was important to play a run of Canadian shows to get more involved in the music scene over here. It’s fun to see how touring in somewhere like Spain is totally possible now with an album coming out. We’re also planning a second North-America tour in spring, this time including the U.S. as well. Basically we can’t wait to play those tunes out to the people, whether that’s in one of our German hometowns or somewhere in Japan! [Laughs]
What made you want to move to North America / Canada / Montreal of all places?
Sea Moya: Growing up in Germany you experience a lot of North-American culture through the internet and so on. It’s something completely different though, to experience something at first hand or get the filtered bubble version of social media, movies or the likes. We wanted to throw ourselves into that cold (yeah cold, speaking of Montreal) water and learn better English, dive into the culture, see what’s out there in the local music scene. Another aspect was to also be able to get yourself a nice and fresh bedding with some clear white linen and make space for some personal growth with the challenge to set up your social life pretty much from scratch. In the end we decided all that over a couple of drinks when really feeling the need to take such a step for quite some time.
Canada was a quite random pick to be honest, but just the right one as we can tell by now. Also the visa regulations are quite easy going, which was very helpful in the decision making. We listened to a handful of Montreal-based artists before actually moving here. The music and arts community looked like a good balance of DIY, weirdness without being too exclusive and cool. This vibe attracted us a lot and it didn’t let us down!
“Falmenta” released October 12, 2018 on Majestic Casual
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