Joakim Daal’s debut single, “Shelter” is fragile, yet warmly familiar
Joakim Daal grew up in the suburbs of New York with his Finnish parents. And although he studied jazz and classical music in his youth, he only began to consider creating music of his own after moving to Montréal in the early 2010’s for university.
In Montréal, Daal became acquainted with the burgeoning DIY pop community that had grown around the Lab Synthèse art collective. Experiencing this vastly diverse approach to self-expression, Daal was able to break free from his preconceived notions of music and art and begin to experiment with creating his own meaningful aesthetic experiences. After years of patiently brewing, this inspiration finally takes form in Daal’s debut single, “Shelter.”
“Shelter” effortlessly combines experimental jazz with elements of more mainstream indie. It’s as if Chet Baker, Bon Iver and Erlend Øye got together one late night and started thinking about ways that they could mix their sounds. “Shelter” offers a fragile, yet warmly familiar melody which is supported by the pulse of a sophisticatedly off-kilter rhythm.
“The song explores the confines of the intimate, sometimes difficult yet expansive world that two people can create with the passing of enough time,” explains Daal when talking about the single. “It’s a world where alternately the smallest aggravations can snowball into a barely contained torrent while the most tectonic shifts and difficult events that test the foundations, ultimately solidify this world and perhaps even dissipate.”
“Shelter” was written, produced and recorded by Daal himself, mixed by Jarno Takkumäki (the artist behind Lac Belot) and mastered by the multiple Grammy Award winning Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone. The drums feature The Holy band’s Eero Jääskeläinen while the layered woodwinds were performed by the saxophonist, Jussi Hurskainen.
Joakim Daal – Shelter
Cover photo by Pia Koskimaa
