Freyja Elsy channels Celtic mythology on "Another Life" single ahead of new EP

Built around soft, cyclical delays and led by guitar, piano, and double bass, "Another Life" is described by Elsy as “a revelatory moment – a sudden burst of sunshine through the clouds, a light breeze in the middle of a scorching heatwave. At the same time came an existential drop in the stomach. What might have happened if I hadn’t forged that path for myself? Whose journey might I still be part of?” she says in a press statement. That tension – between the assurance of having taken the right path and grieving for unlived lives – runs through the track. “There was a strange feeling of grief as I realised that there might be facets of life I will never experience because of the paths I had chosen,” Elsy adds. “It’s a weird dichotomy.” The song marks Elsy’s first lyric written in Cymraeg, a language she’s been learning for the past couple of years. The line “Mae’r hydref yn cyrraedd / A mae Lleu yn gadael, eto” means “Autumn is arriving, and Lleu is leaving again”, introducing an homage to Welsh folklore. Some etymologists link the figure Lleu to the Celtic sun god Lugh, and for Elsy the image reinforces the song’s wider preoccupation with seasonal change and the close of childhood...