by Tom Gallo (@lookatmyrecords)
Toronto multi-instrumentalist Eliza Niemi combined the first two songs from her new EP, “R1” and “Flip,” for a special video that pieces together home movies in a brisk-paced collage style. In doing so, it cycles through the seasons rather quickly as a microcosm of time. Desolate, stormy winter roads morph into spring skyways, which then gives way to summer scenes by the ocean. The vintage footage is linear in that sense, but it pieces together both significant life moments, like giving birth, with fond everyday recollections of children playing at an amusement park and photos of loved ones.
The sentimentality that this evokes pairs nicely with the two songs, which are guided by Niemi’s soft, tranquil melodies that wander like the scenes that accompany them in the video. Her calm affect and hushed, wispy voice weaves between gentle guitar strums, light bursts of percussion, and a pensive cello on “R1.” As the shorter of the two tracks, “Flip” is equally lush and beautiful, but noticeably brighter. Niemi’s voice beams with life and the clean sounding guitar glimmers with rays of hope. The ruminative feel of her words and instrumentation combined with the snapshot memories presented on screen speaks to how fleeting life’s moments can be. As the video pieces these vignettes together, each one cuts to the next in the blink of an eye, reminding us to cherish them as they happen.
Both “R1” and “Flip” appear on Niemi’s second EP, Glass, which is out on April 17th via her newly established label, Vain Mina.