INKEN – Poulithra (Olive Trees) – Single – Benjamin Blunt Recordings – 2022
Facts:
Title: Poulithra (Olive Trees)
Artist: Inken
Format: Single
Label: Benjamin Blunt Recordings
Release Date: 1. April 2022
Genre: Alternativ, Indie, Pop
1 Track • 03m 14s
At qobuz available in Hi-Res
24-Bit / 44.1 kHz – Stereo
For the German translation of
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Prelude
Hamburg. Northern Germany. My second home, because I lived 6 years up there in East Frisia and what nobody believes: I live in Fulda, and from here all rivers are flowing to the north. So I also live in Northern Germany. And that‘ s good…
Inken. Hamburg. Northern Germany. 29 years. So, according to my statement before, Inken has home field advantage with me. It feels like Inken has been making music for 29 years. Well, not exactly. It all started, at least the story is starting here, with the stoner rock combo „Doesn’t Rhyme With King“, where she, together with her brother Henning on drums, handled the microphone and played guitar for seven long years, and she also wrote the songs.
Her stoner rock stuff was already brilliant, and with that stuff Inken and the band were touring through Wales and Southern England, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Later, together with her friends „The Sound Monkeys“, she was touring through half of Eastern Europe: four people, in a car, the equipment stuffed to the roof, on the way to Moscow. Which I couldn’t recommend as a performance venue today.
The Debut-Single PICKIN‘ OLIVES
Since 2019 she is also singer and songwriter of the electronic music duo „HIGH ON ISRA.” With producer Jo Bischofberger and with incredibly good stuff, they had released several EP’s on SINE MUSIC in the German Black Forest. INKEN is, as already mentioned, a singer (with a really cool voice), guitarist (a perfect one) and songwriter (with excellent lyrics) and describes her music as Subconsciousness-Pop.
The New Single – POULITHRA
And that’s an excellent description. When her first single titled „Pickin‘ Olives“ was released in February 2022, it was exactly happening in the way she had promised to us: INKEN really connected our subconsciousness with her understanding of pop music. The first time you hear it, you say, „Okay, nice,“ but then you start dreaming about olives and Inken’s music. The next morning you wake up and you realize, „Hey, I’ve got an earworm – Pickin‘ Olives.”A
Her second single, which will fill an EP (autumn 2022) along with the debut “Pickin‘ Olives”, is of a similar large caliber. „Poulithra (Olive Trees)“ is an incredibly brilliant vocal pop ballad in the finest singer/songwriter attitude, crystal clear produced with beautiful guitar picking, embellished with an impressive studio live atmosphere and Inken’s enchanting voice. The arrangements are extremely well-done, the stuff pulls you in, digs in and won’t let you go. Extremely intelligent pop music.
With her new single „Poulithra (Olive Trees)“, Inken demonstrates that she produces unbelievably good pop that doesn’t seem to fit into any scene, and certainly not into Berlin. Inken sounds Nordic. But just how far north is Hamburg located? So far that it seems to believe that Inken can shake hands with the Norwegian icon „AURORA“, or even with the Swedish exceptional singer Lykke Li? Yes, she can, and also the way to the brilliant icelandic VöK aka Margrét Rán Magnúsdóttir should not be too long.
And yes, to my ears at least, Inken sounds very nordic with her clear warmth radiating arrangements, and Röyksopp with Susanne Sundfor is even not soooo far away.
In any case, she has done a really great job with the generic term „Subconsciousness-Pop“, which describes her beautiful music skillfully, and fits the above-mentioned comparisons very well, anyhow. Are there still some wishes open? Yes, I would like to see Inken break away a bit from the epic ballad-like stuff and that she would pick up a bit more speed for the EP. But otherwise, in terms of Inken with her music and especially with her videos everything is fine – really good.
Rating for INKEN – Poutithra – Single
Summary
Max: 5 Points
My Testequipment:
Studio 1 (High End):
- 2 x System Audio SA Mantra 50 (front)
- 1x System Audio SA Mantra 10 AV (center)
- 2x System Audio SA Legend 5 (Rear)
- 1 x System Audio Saxo 10 (Subwoofer)
- 4 x Onkyo SKH-410 (B) (Dolby Atmos)
- Auralic Altair (Audio Streaming Client mit max. 32 Bit / 384 kHz)
- NVIDIA Shield Pro mit Plex, Kodi (max 192 kHz für Audio, Tidal (MQA Streaming Client)
- AppleTV 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Amazon Cube 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos (restricted), HDR, Dolby Vision
- Panasonic DP-UB9004 (4K UHD Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Oppo UDP-203 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
- Yamaha CX-A5100 (Preamp) 4K, Dolby Atmos, Hi-res
- Yamaha MX -A5000 (Power Amp)
- Sony KD-55A1 (TV) 4K OLED, HDR, Dolby Vision