TAIPEI, TAIWAN (Business Northeast) – Since her debut album Live Like Me in 2022, Taiwanese indie music award- winning songstress Leaf Yeh brings a new sound with her mother language Hakka in her latest three-track EP entitled SOLOGAMY.
Leaf Yeh was the lead singer of indie band Nightkeepers, these experiences were all pitstops and learning experiences for Leaf, she released her first all-original album Birth and Death in 2019 and Live Like Me in 2022, those works make Leaf becoming be recognized a songstress who fuses pop and world music genres strung together with poetic lyrics that allow the most fantastical of landscapes to flourish, Yeh has taken many twists and turns on her journey before landing on this zen, comforting world she has constructed for her listeners.
Speaking on the inspiration of her music, Leaf said, “Normally I seem like a very talkative person, but I do have some very introverted parts to me. I actually often feel spent of my energy, and need time alone with myself to have conversations and not talk to people. I think the fact that we’re living in an information overload society, this is a little in disagreement with my nature…I think constantly preserving the quiet inside and giving myself alone time, this is how I can get back my energy to communicate with the outside world.”
In her EP Sologamy, released at the end of 2022, Leaf Yeh sincerely expresses her inner self in three songs: “Sologamy,” “Kite,” and “Little Horse.” Though she usually sings in Mandarin, this album is done in Hakka, which is her mother tongue and the language that made her who she is. The gentle music is flavored with a sense of the exotic. Earlier in 2022, she released Live Like Me, and Sologamy follows suit in going even deeper into self-exploration via a stronger magic realism as she discusses home and family.
For this EP, she worked with Chunho, producer of Enno Cheng’s Mercury Retrograde. Chunho arranged the three songs in such a way that they link together to form a single story. The emphasis on echo in the vocals comes from Hakka mountain songs and their old function as a means of dialogue. “Sologamy” begins with wordless singing that brings to mind the sound of a phonograph, revealing that the piece is about the self, and it ends with a modified melody of “Wedding March” to create a sense of celebration. “Little Horse” is done with the piano, which Leaf is highly proficient at, and serves as a thoroughly genuine display of the self. For “Kite,” the vast soundscape and beautiful vocals bring listeners on an unbridled flight through the sky.
Sologamy describes Leaf’s connection between her home and herself in Hakka, the language of the environment she grew up in. It is the best way for her to connect to her younger years and an expression of her longing for home. Besides being a year-end gift of blessing to her fans, the album is also a forerunner to the search for home she intends to continue next year. She hopes it inspires everyone to think about their own warm memories of home.
Sologamy has been released on December 26TH, available on global digital platforms, Apple music, Spotify and Youtube music.
For updates on Leaf Yeh, please follow these social media platforms:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwd33QJex_M
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leafleafyeh/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leafyeh_music/
Website: https://leafyehmusic.com/
