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Nov 08, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Morgan Hamilton

L.A.-based singer/songwriter Alyssa Gengos has been making music under the moniker Kythira since she was around 14 years old. However, last month she stuck out on her own, sharing “Mechanical Sweetness,” her first track released under her name. The track will also be the title track from her forthcoming debut LP, due out February 25th via Eggunt Records. Recorded almost entirely alone on her laptop, her debut album is a solitary work of insular beauty, reflecting over years of nostalgia-laden dreaming.

In addition to the newly announced record, Gengos has also shared a new single, “Gothenburg English,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Gothenburg English” opens on an air of sweeping nostalgia, with Gengos’ airy vocals swim through watery synth tones. She conjures a drifting indie pop reverie, one she then bursts apart with the shimmering guitar-driven chorus. Amidst it all, Gengos reflects back on her traveling days and the heartbreak that awaited her back home, crafting a song full of yearning heartache and an insistent pop core.

Gengos says of the track, “I began writing ‘Gothenburg English’ in my head while walking around the titular city near the end of my Scandinavian sojourn. Six months prior, I’d left a long-term partner behind in New York City, hoping the relationship would survive. It did not. I finally accepted the end of it while wandering around Gothenburg and the Delsjö wilderness on the outskirts of the city. A friend told me the local accent is one of the most sing-songy in the Swedish language, and it’s audible when speaking English, too, creating a kind of “Gothenburg English.” I think of this song as a road song in the sense of American road novels and movies. I sing about my travels during this time and admit the realization that I came to once I returned home: I was ready to move on from the relationship that had brought me so much stress and misery.”

She continues, “I eventually left New York for my home of Los Angeles, where I filmed the music video for this song with the help of some of my oldest friends. In it, the audience gets a glimpse into my home studio, as well as different locations that left marks on my adolescence, as I connect the person I was when I first started making music to the person I have become.”

Check out the song and video below and pre-order Mechanical Sweetness, due out February 25th via Eggunt Records