Lennie Gallant has released a new single from his upcoming album Time Travel. The track, “Selkie,” is a fusion of the mythological Celtic legend and the chilling beauty of the Blood Moon, and the result is something magical.
The single features vocals from Mary Jane Lamond and Patricia Richard and strings from The Fretless. It was released to coincide with the Blood Moon last week, the longest we’ve seen in a century. Right from the beginning, the song sets a haunting tone. Both Gallant’s vocals and the strings crooning in the background are muted but build to the chorus like a wave crashing onto the shore. The effect is reminiscent of Prince Edward Island, the province Gallant calls home.
Each piece of this song blends perfectly together to add to the image Gallant envisioned for it. Naturally, his lyrics are poetic enough to stand on their own and evoke emotion. The combined vocals of Gallant and Richard in the chorus add a whole new layer, and Lamond’s Gaelic verse adds a final piece that would otherwise be missing—the voice of the Selkie folk, singing, “From the sea I come to find you.”
The song lends itself to the Celtic legend of the Selkie, a seal creature that takes the shape of a human while on land by shedding its skin. The story goes that if a Selkie’s sealskin is stolen, it is unable to transform back into a seal until it is returned. Gallant fully alludes to this with the recurring line from the chorus, “I need you tonight like a magic skin.”
The single marks Gallant‘s first studio recording in nine years and signals a triumphant resurgence of sound. Gallant‘s previous discography boasts an impressive eleven albums, ranging from live to recorded and French to English. He’s won a number of awards for his work, including ECMAs for both Entertainer of the Year and Folk Album of the Year.
Gallant self-describes the new album, set to release August 31, as covering a wide range of themes, from the mundane human experience to the more surreal realm of myths and legends. Bathed in Gallant‘s rich voice and the poignant strings of The Fretless, “Selkie” is a bitterly short taste of what’s to come when the rest of the album releases.