iskwē | ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ is an artist – a creator and communicator of music and of movement, of pictures, poetry and prose. And through it all, she’s a teller of stories that have impacted our past and will inform our future. Today, the JUNO award-winning artist announces her new project, The Stars – a reimagination of her album acākosīk, and shares the first single “Night Danger (Lovers Mix)“. Listen here. The album features new arrangements (by Darren Fung) of six songs with iskwē accompanied by a trio of piano (Michael Shand), cello (Mariel Gonzalez), and violin (Laura C Bates) recorded live-off-the-floor at Revolution Recording in Toronto and a dramatic orchestral reimagining of “Night Danger (Lovers Mix)” recorded with the FILMharmonic Orchestra (Prague). Where acākosīk demanded our attention, The Stars invites us into an emotional and soulful experience with iskwē. The Stars will be released digitally on March 5, 2021.
“While I wasn’t physically in the room with the FILMharmonic Orchestra while recording, being able to finally have a long-standing vision of performing and recording with an Orchestra come to life was one of my happiest and most soul-satisfying moments.” iskwē continues; “I can’t fully put in words the sensation it brought, but I felt a sort of bliss and pride like nothing I’ve experienced before.“
The Stars is the inverse of her 2019 album acākosīk, starting with the title which is the English translation of the cree word acākosīk. Where acākosīk is a blaze of sonic exploration, The Stars is an elegant and intimate sharing of the collection allowing iskwē’s songwriting, voice and spirit to shine.
