HELEN GANYA - Share Your Care

On her third album for Bella Union, Scottish-Thai singer-songwriter Helen Ganya embarks on a fascinating artistic exploration of Thailand's music and sounds. "Share Your Care" is an album steeped in childhood recollections and family memories, one that, without ever lingering in nostalgia, manages to conjure a feeling of joy and gratitude for moments shared with people who are no longer alive. Sometimes with irony, sometimes with tenderness, grief and loss are transfigured into a radiant blaze of light and colour.

Ganya works within the classic structure of Western pop-rock songwriting, but also draws on a wide array of instruments typical of Thai music. While "Morlam Plearn (Luk Khrueng Surprise)" is her personal take on a genre played during joyful celebrations, elsewhere lysergic clouds derived from British psychedelic pop blend with the bright timbre of traditional instruments. The sonic fusion is certainly compelling, but it's the melodic lines that make the difference. While the title track has the appeal of the alt-pop hits that defined British pop in the first half of the 2010s, "Fortune" is perhaps the finest song the singer-songwriter has ever written: the crystalline sound of the khim laid over driving percussion provides the perfect skeleton for a carefully calibrated build that culminates in a joyously layered conclusion.

The lyrics of "Share Your Care" also constantly reference traditions belonging to Thai culture, set against the ever-present backdrop of the lush landscape of Northeastern Thailand. This is therefore not only a journey into the past of Ganya's maternal family, but also a geographical and cultural itinerary. Aware of the risk of adopting an orientalizing gaze, the singer-songwriter chose to rely on the experience of people closely tied to the local culture: her grandparents, her mother and other family members, but also the musicians playing the many traditional instruments, all contributing to create a multifaceted, sincere and, above all, never romanticized portrait.

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16/02/2025