{"title":"tella","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"up-and-away","title":"Up and Away","description":"\u003cp\u003eΣtella makes her Sub Pop debut with the mesmerizing \u003ci\u003eUp and Away\u003c\/i\u003e, an old-school pop paean to the pangs and raptures of love. From the Greek folk-inflected get-go, we’re swept up in Σtella’s world – and it’s quite the captivating place to be. The singer-songwriter joined forces with artist and producer Tom Calvert (aka Redinho), and it was a match made in Athens; the results are heavenly. Tom caught one of Σtella’s gigs on a visit to the city. He reached out, they started hanging out, and the pair soon clicked creatively. Both mention chemistry when asked about their collaboration and it’s clear, from what we hear, they had it in spades. The meld is seamless. Σtella’s songs have always riffed on American and Greek mid-century pop but \u003ci\u003eUp and Away\u003c\/i\u003e doubles down on the vintage aesthetic. Tom says he styled the record “as if it was a rare gem from the ’60s found in a box of records in Athens,” and Σtella notes she was ready for a more “deeply Greek touch – it felt comfortable and right, smoothly fusing with the pop.” The bouzouki appears on a full five tracks played by Christos Skondras who, she says, “was brilliant at improvising,” while Sofia Labropoulou on the kanun “brought an insane amount of dreaminess to the last two songs. Having these amazing musicians play for \u003ci\u003eUp and Away\u003c\/i\u003e – I couldn’t be more grateful.” While not exclusively a confessional artist, Σtella is always intimate – when she sings, it’s personal. She writes “about things I feel passion for. Stories about me, about others, about all that’s there in love and war.” Σtella was “in a very emotional state at the time, which came through in the lyrics and vocals.” And it’s true, her honeyed voice – layered in those unmistakable harmonies of hers – thrillingly runs the gamut from tender to terse, by turns bracing and smitten, aching and forlorn. But it’s the lyrics that feel key. Across her output, Σtella has proven herself a strong storyteller, and \u003ci\u003eUp and Away\u003c\/i\u003e is no exception (the guise of the medieval bard she assumes on the cover is telling). Past releases have been studded with gem-like vignettes – a diverse array of stories set tightly together to form non-linear narratives unified by emotion. Her latest feels singular in that it seems to trace a longer-form tale across songs, with each track escalating the record’s erotic arc. By the end of the album, \u003ci\u003eUp and Away’s\u003c\/i\u003e core concerns are clear: the conflicting and conflicted emotions inherent in love, that live on in ways we can’t always understand or control. Love is like this record: when it’s over, you still feel it for time to come.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sub Pop","offers":[{"title":"Blue | LP","offer_id":50447982494027,"sku":"1152573","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50447983116619,"sku":"1152572","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/bd7e34ba-5e46-4b9e-b321-0af0e2327318_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727084877"},{"product_id":"adagio-2","title":"Adagio","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlmost as soon as Σtella Chronopoulou began writing \u003ci\u003eAdagio\u003c\/i\u003e, her fifth album as Σtella, she knew the time had finally come to sing in Greek, her native tongue. It would be a first. She started the record almost by accident in 2019, during an 11-hour boat ride to the island of Anafi. Σtella had recently gone through a patch of personal turmoil and needed a break from home. On the ferry, she pulled out her cell phone as the boat clipped through the Mediterranean and began with a simple melody, steadily piecing together a rough instrumental. As psychedelic keyboards twinkled and swayed above staccato drums, the track suggested some deep exhalation, as if Σtella were letting go of long-unnecessary baggage. For a spell, she set the instrumental aside. She wasn’t ready yet, or in a rush.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eΣtella, after all, grew up in a slow place. During her youth in a relatively rural suburb of Athens, Greece, she and her friends played unfettered in empty streets, not worried about cars or permission, and living felt easy. But in the last decade life has steadily become busier for Σtella, now based in the heart of Athens. She has become one of modern Greece’s most popular musical exports, with three sophisticated, playful pop albums rendered with international élan. After her Sub Pop debut, Up and Away, in 2022, she catapulted beyond three million monthly Spotify listeners. That success was a blessing, but Σtella sometimes found herself pining for the slower pace of her youth. That longing is the thread that loosely binds together her fifth album, the entrancing \u003ci\u003eAdagio\u003c\/i\u003e. Borrowing its name from the term for music that’s meant to be played slowly, \u003ci\u003eAdagio\u003c\/i\u003e is a pop record that feels like a very warm blanket, its nylon-string guitars and featherlight percussion swaddling its listeners for three minutes at a time. Written and recorded over the span of five years, with a consortium of international collaborators including !!!’s Rafael Cohen and British songwriter Gabriel Stebbing, \u003ci\u003eAdagio\u003c\/i\u003e is a 27-minute meditation on love and desire, rest and time. Though the bulk of it is sung in English, Σtella delivers her first two songs in Greek here—“Omorfo Mou,” the one that began on the boat, and a cover of a 1969 cult classic of the Greek New Wave, Litsa Sakelariou’s “Ta Vimata.” It is a sign of the self-assurance that radiates throughout these tender and smitten little tunes.Start to finish, Σtella sounds more at ease and comfortable than she’s ever been on \u003ci\u003eAdagio\u003c\/i\u003e. These fetching songs will not slow her career or grant her that title track’s wish. But, for half an hour, \u003ci\u003eAdagio\u003c\/i\u003e adds a measure of warmth to the world, with time loosening its grip even if it doesn’t slow down.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sub Pop","offers":[{"title":"White LP","offer_id":51066376716619,"sku":"2238614","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":51066377240907,"sku":"2238615","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2d5e5024-2aa8-195f-e97a-8c264de84933_90866771_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1736437272"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/collections\/tella.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}