• News

• All

Sep 26, 2023 By Caleb Campbell

Later this week, experimental singer/songwriter and composer VARNA GL is set to share her debut album, PILARNGAR, out September 29th. The album finds VARNA pulling directly from her Greenlandic Inuit tradition, rooting her music in both East Greenlandic drum traditions and various shades of electronica and dance music. The results are striking, singular, and searing, yet for VARNA her music is equally a spiritual practice, part of a locus of dance, music, cultural awakening, and reclamation.

She has already shared two singles from the record, “QAARDULU” and “IDDORARPI,” and today she’s back with the album’s immersive title track, “PILARNGAR,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“PILARNGAR” flows constantly in new directions, never settling into a single soundscape for long before a new texture or rhythm joins the fray. It begins as a dense ambient noise experiment before VARNA expressive vocals come in amidst crashing drums and pounding percussive electronics. At other points, the instrumental pulls back and puts the focus on VARNA’s vocals, delivered in her Greenlandic language. Finally, the track hits its climax near the end as the drums grow more frenzied and propulsive. In this setting, VARNA’s vocals sound immense and powerful, soaring into infinity with an elemental presence.

VARNA explains of her music, “A majority of Inuit in Greenland have temporarily lost connection to our ancient tradition as lived practice. A consequence of extreme ‘development’ based on non-inuit cultural values and way of life has left people to prioritise different ways in order to survive. This system was never built for us, we are sucking the energy out of ourselves trying to constantly translate for someone else.

We need to look within as a people, listen to ourselves and trust that we can reconnect and revive in all aspects. We need to stand together, to set a new course that we believe in.

Personally I know, the drum is one way for connection and healing.

We are a resilient people, and I truly believe reviving our ancient ways in a fluid and engaged way has strong potential to attune us to our bodies, mind and each-other as a part of nature and spiritual beings. We can let go and rebuild and choose to consciously nourish the practices and energy that moves us forward”

Check out the song below. PILARNGAR is out on September 29th.