Katrin-Merili: Beautiful Things
30th August 2024
Paris-based, Estonian soul artist Katrin-Merili is proud to share her debut EP ‘Beautiful Things’. Releasing on Friday 30th August, the project sees her channel the soulful energy of Yebba, Moonchild and Donny Hathaway, weaving her vocal around future-facing, blues-laced instrumentals to create a distinctive brand of Nordic neo-soul.
A rising name in the Parisian soul-jazz crossover scene, Katrin has spent the last eight years in the French capital collaborating and building a name for herself, supporting the likes of Roy Ayres at the revered New Morning jazz club. Her path in Paris led to her meeting co-producer Sacha Arnaud, who was able to help Katrin bring her musical vision to life alongside the vibrant presence of talented French musicians including Noé Berne (Nine Sparks Riot) and Remi Klein (Voyou).
‘Beautiful Things’ is a project consisting of five intimate stories centred around femininity, identity, and mental health, touching upon Katrin’s experience of being split between two countries, and supporting her mother through her battle with breast cancer. Due to the deeply personal subject material, Katrin wanted to be as involved as possible across the project, creating her own visual world to accompany the music, she shares:
“I decided to self-produce the EP independently to be able to follow through with my original vision and to make something really personal. I am fully present in all the aspects of the creation, from writing the lyrics to styling, MUA, self-portraits, artworks and collages. Every song is a personal piece of my life and an invite to join me on my journey of self-discovery.”
Lead single ‘Hold My Body’ reflected on a long distance relationship, and the power of love to surpass geographical boundaries, finding widespread support from the likes of Wonderland and WordPlay magazine. Follow up ‘Overjoyed’ explored a moment of joy experienced by Katrin after helping someone else, and serves as a reminder of how rewarding helping those around us can be. Creating a joyous, old-school soul feel akin to Donny Hathaway or Marvin Gaye, complete with wurlitzer organs, grooving bass and carefully arranged choral sections, Katrin shares:
“I wanted for it to sound as warm and human as it felt when I wrote it. In the production process we worked on mixing the old school feel with more of a modern sound, and this song took us the longest production-wise to get the right feeling, as it’s all live instrumentation.”