Estère - Archetypes (2021)

Ever since Estère spoke to her grandmother about Carl Jung and his concept of archetypes, the Wellington-based producer knew the direction her next album would take. Fascinated, Estère dedicated herself to creating a record based on Jungian theory, devouring five books and filling six notebooks with dreams, brainstorms and eventually the material that appears on her third masterful record, the concept-album Archetypes.

Estère’s Jungian obsession dominated her sleep, creating bizarre dreamtime scenarios featuring encounters with cheetahs in a garden or sea creatures in a flood, while others revolved around delivering life into the universe and the massive task of guardianship over these beings - the instinctive selflessness of motherhood. Other dreams depicted violence and killing of the other; in some, Estère saw herself as a boy or a man. The imagery and meaning in these dreams have been incorporated into the archetypes that are featured on the album.

Archetypes is a departure from the bedroom beats of Estère’s previous two albums. Co-produced with Massive Attack producer, Stew Jackson, each track on the album comes alive through the Wellington-based artist’s deft production. Defying categoristion, her music is a mixture of folk, R&B and electronica, blended in a unique fashion, easily identified as ‘Estère’. Archetypes is the sound of an artist unafraid to follow their creative instinct.