Géonne Hartman will release her long-awaited second studio album Once More on September 25. Once More, the title of the new album, served as a mantra of encouragement throughout the four years she spent working on it. The result is a radiant work, full of sparkling details that resonate throughout every corner of the album. She tells stories of life and love, friendship and family, meaning and sincerity, time and generations. Her musical universe is both earthy and dreamlike, filled with exciting and colourful imagery and clear observations.
Géonne Hartman retreated to a small garden shed studio in the back garden of Albert, her former teacher. Here she took her skills as a producer, arranger and composer to a new level. Whereas her debut He Went To The Sea featured grand metaphors and arrangements, Once More is a more intimate work. She wanted to create an album that would feel less like an entire era and more like a snapshot in the life of a young woman. She set out to find common ground between people, something to hold on to. For instance, whilst walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (three summers ago), she realised that her search for connection and peace was not unique. With every step of the 700km she covered on foot, she felt her restlessness sink to the bottom, like a river clearing once more. She also noticed how people helped one another along the way when things got too much.
Inspired by songwriter Adrianne Lenker and writer Sally Rooney, Hartman invites us to slow down and take notice of the details of the world and of life. The songs also constantly interact and reference one another, both lyrically and musically. ”While I was recording my record in a small garden studio, I heard the rain dripping on the roof. I had placed Sally Rooney’s book ‘Beautiful World Where Are You’ on the small desk, almost as an anchor. It felt cozy that half of the studio consisted of a grand piano and the other half of a bookcase. Would it all go to plan? Recording an album by myself, documenting my journey as a young adult in my late twenties, my search for love and connection? I didn’t know yet, but I kept on working, weighing every note and word. The ‘Camino’ was still in the back of my mind, the rippling water I walked alongside still in my ears, the people I met still lingering in my memory. I wanted to try, and try once more, and once more. And slowly it dawned on me, that this motion, might be inherent to this beautiful and confusing thing called life.”