With just a few days to go before their first show in over a year, taking place this Saturday, August 13th at the Grosse Lanterne festival, Groenland unveils Healing Suns, the first single from their new album to be released on September 16th via Bonsound. Healing Suns is a song that represents the rediscovery of our own light after a long period of doubt, reveals the Montreal band led by Sabrina Halde and Jean-Vivier Lévesque.
Stream and share Healing Suns via YouTube. The album A Wider Space is available for pre-order on Bandcamp and iTunes.
The title of this sophomore effort, A Wider Space, expresses Groenland’s entry into a new era, one that is more significant and vast than the previous. The two-plus years of touring across both Canadian and European soil brought to light various questions at the heart of the band. They decided that they needed to continue both their music and human evolutions by working on the group’s inner-harmony. I might be the one to place / All my eggs into one basket / But it still feels like my best bet, sings Halde on the album’s opening track, Nothing Personal.
While their debut album The Chase, which was praised by the public and sold over 32k copies in Canada since its release in April 2013, depicted people and anecdotes with lightness, A Wider Space is more personal and realistic. The new LP bears witness to the darker sides of adventure, the flip side of touring. It’s a manifesto about what follows the euphoria felt at the beginning of an adventure, the band explains. The lyrics speak of anxiety, fear, survival, acceptance and the courage to see yourself in the most vulnerable way.
However, A Wider Space is not a downbeat album. Producer Marcus Paquin (Local Natives, Arcade Fire, The National, etc.) made good use of Groenland’s creative forces. Still guided by Sabrina’s powerful vocals and punctuated by exuberant orchestral arrangements, these ten new songs daringly mix electro and organic elements. From the surprising sax solo on Healing Suns to the comforting ukulele on the title track, A Wider Space reflects the band’s newly-found maturity and recalls the joie de vivre closely associated with Groenland’s performances since the very beginning.
Tour Dates
13/08/16 Béthanie, QC // La Grosse Lanterne
01/09/16 Rouyn-Noranda, QC // Agora des Arts (FME)
03/09/16 Lavaltrie, QC // Café culturel de la Chasse-galerie
15/09/16 Vancouver, BC // Biltmore Cabaret
16/09/16 Victoria, BC // Sugar Nightclub (Rifflandia)
17/09/16 Victoria, BC // Alix Goolden Hall (Rifflandia)
21/09/16 Ottawa, ON // Zaphod Beeblebrox
22/09/16 Montreal, QC // Club Soda (Pop Montreal)
23/09/16 Quebec City, QC // Impérial Bell
22/10/16 Longueuil, QC // Salle Jean-Louis Millette
28/10/16 Waterloo, QC // Maison de la Culture Waterloo
29/10/16 Frelighsburg, QC // Beat & Betterave
03/11/16 Trois-Rivières, QC // Le Satyre
04/11/16 Shawinigan, QC // Salon Wabasso
05/11/16 Disraeli, QC // Cabaret des Arts
11/11/16 Victoriaville, QC // Cactus Resto-Bar
12/11/16 Sorel-Tracy, QC // Café-Théâtre les Beaux Instants
24/11/16 Toronto, ON // Gladstone Hotel
25/11/16 Guelph, ON // The Bookshelf eBar
26/11/16 Elora, ON // Elora Brewing Company
01/12/16 New Richmond, QC // Cabaret de la Salle de spectacles régionale Desjardins
02/12/16 Gaspé, QC // Salle de spectacle de Gaspé
03/12/16 Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, QC // Le Malbord
10/12/16 Granby, QC // La Salle Rouge
20/01/17 Saint-Casimir, QC // La Taverne de Saint-Casimir
24/02/17 Joliette, QC // Cabaret Telus de la Salle Rolland-Brunelle
25/02/17 Val-Morin, QC // Théâtre du Marais
11/03/17 Sherbrooke, QC // Théâtre Granada
22/03/17 Laval, QC // Salle André-Mathieu
25/03/17 Ste-Geneviève, QC // Salle Pauline-Julien