Biography
Helena Deland first surfaced in Montreal’s independent music community, where her understated aesthetic placed equal weight on sonic detail and tonal nuance alongside tuneful elements and conventional forms. Her 2016 EP Drawing Room introduced a notably soft vocal approach. The Polaris Prize-longlisted album Someone New followed in 2020 as her full-length debut. After exploring electronic textures in the duo Hildegard alongside Ouri, she shifted toward an airy, folk-leaning sound for the 2023 single “Deceiver,” a collaboration with claire rousay, and the follow-up LP Goodnight Summerland.
Vancouver-born and Quebec City-raised, Deland moved to Montreal and studied piano and guitar during childhood. Her earliest song collection, Drawing Room, took shape through work with Jesse Mac Cormack, who handled recording, mixing, and arrangements. Airy synth passages and acoustic strumming sat beside noir-tinged electric lines and harmonica, all held together by a soft-focus atmosphere and inward-looking words. A larger ensemble that included Mac Cormack then delivered the two volumes of From the Series of Songs “Altogether Unaccompanied” on Luminelle Recordings, with Vols. 1-2 appearing in March 2018 and Vols. 3-4 arriving that October.
Support dates alongside Weyes Blood and Connan Mockasin, plus an opening slot for Iggy Pop in Paris, preceded her return with a debut album. Contributions from Gabe Wax, Jake Portrait, and Valentin Ignat shaped Someone New, which Deland recorded with her band and issued on Luminelle in October 2020; the set earned a Polaris Music Prize longlist the following year.
In 2021 she formed the experimental electronic project Hildegard with Montreal producer Ouri, releasing their self-titled debut that June. Ouri later produced the track “Swimmer,” issued in February 2022. European shows with Andy Shauf and Leith Ross came later that year. May 2023 brought the claire rousay collaboration “Deceiver,” after which Deland maintained a similarly streamlined, diffused approach on Goodnight Summerland. Recorded with Sam Evian at his Catskills studio (apart from “Swimmer”), the November 2023 album marked her first release on the Montreal label Chivi Chivi.
Vancouver-born and Quebec City-raised, Deland moved to Montreal and studied piano and guitar during childhood. Her earliest song collection, Drawing Room, took shape through work with Jesse Mac Cormack, who handled recording, mixing, and arrangements. Airy synth passages and acoustic strumming sat beside noir-tinged electric lines and harmonica, all held together by a soft-focus atmosphere and inward-looking words. A larger ensemble that included Mac Cormack then delivered the two volumes of From the Series of Songs “Altogether Unaccompanied” on Luminelle Recordings, with Vols. 1-2 appearing in March 2018 and Vols. 3-4 arriving that October.
Support dates alongside Weyes Blood and Connan Mockasin, plus an opening slot for Iggy Pop in Paris, preceded her return with a debut album. Contributions from Gabe Wax, Jake Portrait, and Valentin Ignat shaped Someone New, which Deland recorded with her band and issued on Luminelle in October 2020; the set earned a Polaris Music Prize longlist the following year.
In 2021 she formed the experimental electronic project Hildegard with Montreal producer Ouri, releasing their self-titled debut that June. Ouri later produced the track “Swimmer,” issued in February 2022. European shows with Andy Shauf and Leith Ross came later that year. May 2023 brought the claire rousay collaboration “Deceiver,” after which Deland maintained a similarly streamlined, diffused approach on Goodnight Summerland. Recorded with Sam Evian at his Catskills studio (apart from “Swimmer”), the November 2023 album marked her first release on the Montreal label Chivi Chivi.
Albums
Someone New
2020
Altogether Unaccompanied, Vol. III
2018
Altogether Unaccompanied, Vol. IV
2018
Altogether Unaccompanied, Vol. II
2018
Altogether Unaccompanied, Vol. I
2018
Singles
