Music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
ships and trees
Photos
Bio
heidi elva grew up in a small town in new zealand. under mountain ranges. her father a postman and a preacher, her mother a housewife.
heidi left new zealand in 1999 and in 2003 went off to study music in northern nsw. there she found the harp and started writing. in sydney, heidi has played around with different bands but now she plays her own songs with a cellist and a trumpet player. she uses loops and effects and sings. sometimes looping samples from her mobile through the harp. there are interesting sounds on the mobile internet.
‘ships and trees’ was recorded in a tiny room on a busy street in newtown. the only light being a red lampshade. the layers came together over 6 months. heidi would bring her ideas - mini-disc recordings of trains, a little old chinese man playing er-hu on a noisy city street, a distant piano recorded in a town hall with paint peeling from its walls, songs already written on harp and her poetry.
friends would come and go with instruments - trombone, cello, trumpet, slide guitar and bass. brian campeau would record it, occasionally adding backing vocals and programming simple beats while heidi would work on the lines for everyone to play.
it’s a delicate conversation. a friend listened to it and said that her voice was like a narcotic. she thought that was interesting.
heidi is inspired by nature and urban landscapes – silhouettes of houses and trees, the sound of birds and cars and the beauty of japanese minimalism.
"......her gently flowing style of playing is hypnotic.....as she created live loops and sang through her harp to distort her voice, it was clear she is an artist devoted to pushing herself. Truly, her performance was a joy..."
Drum Media - The Sandringham Hotel
"I waltzed into the slowly filling room to the fragile, sparse sounds of harpist and singer Heidi Elva....There was an impressive emotional intensity to Ms Elva’s performance which held the audience enraptured. .......Heidi’s magnetic appeal and stirring tunes kept me rooted to the spot..."
Faster Louder – The Annandale
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