Indira Elias - Songs from a Moon // Songs by the Sun (2021)

Written over almost a decade, “Songs from a Moon//Songs by the Sun” is an earnest and epic coming-of-age work. Much like the fables her music evokes, Elias conjures a heroine traversing sonic landscapes with curiosity and bravery. Her band — angelic harp and harmonies, wailing synths and thundering horns and drums, move seamlessly from light to dark, taking time to rest in the silences between. The record features a stellar line up of Sydney talent, with performances by Zigi Blau (FOSHE), Kiri Cantle (KIRI), Jarvis Morrow, Olivia Warhol (IDA WARHOL) and Sarah Homeh (MONSTRESS), as well as mixing by Antonia Gauci (GAUCI).

Part one of the album, “Songs from a Moon/” — a nod to Leonard Cohen’s “Songs from a Room” — is made of songs primarily written while living in Paris and fresh out of school. The timid intimacy of these tracks, at once naive and wise, reflects a period of exploration- first loves and the glimpses of what womanhood might feel like. Part two, “/Songs by the Sun”, was written living beneath the Australian Sun. Coming into herself, through the first “big love” and the first few great pains, the second half of the album grabs at grief and pulls it apart to see what it is made of- only to find the threads of life.