To celebrate the release of the vinyl version of the album, iris released an acoustic version of opening track, «push, don’t push». She followed this up with her final release of 2021 – another acoustic take, this time a heartbreaking version of «ROBOTLOVER» and she’s starting 2022 with the last acoustic version from the debut record. «mirri-mirri» is out 21 January on GEMS/Warner Music Norway.
iris works with the themes that have always driven her music – the things we do for love, and the things love does to us; after the release of her EP Femme Florale, the 25 year-old from Bergen remarked “I sometimes feel like the ocean, shifting and changing – change is almost an instinct for me.»
Initially an interlude on love and other disasters, a sort of sketch of ideas based around looped and treated vocals, the new version of «mirri-mirri» is a thing of glorious beauty. The guitar (Fredrik Svabø), piano (Askjell Solstrand) and strings (Carmen Bóveda and Mari Birgitte Bølgen Halvorsen) turn the track into chamber music, and iris adds one of her loveliest and gently urgent vocal performances to date.
«‘mirri-mirri’ is a messy song in a way, it’s just a stream of consciousness… on the album-version, a lot of the lyrics are hard to hear or understand,» explains iris. «I needed to make a version where I tried to make sense of my own raw emotion. ‘Mirri’ was a word I found after reversing some of my vocals. When I googled it I found out that it’s a name that means ‘the sun‘, which made perfect sense to me and the song.»
iris adds: «‘mirri-mirri’ is the sound of me breaking my own heart, being unable to stop myself from putting up walls, and all the time missing the warmth and strength from being near the sun.»
«mirri-mirri (acoustic)» is out on GEMS 21th of January.
Pre-listen link: https://s.disco.ac/ibkzsfxrbbdp
