Vinyl - Emma Elisabeth - a sudden break in the clouds (vinyl + ringer tee bundle)

“I’m sick of singing songs about the city, I was born by the sea” reads a lyric line by singer/songwriter Emma Elisabeth on her upcoming 2025 album “a sudden break in the clouds”. An unmistakable sense of longing and belonging has re-shaped her life since the last album release. End of last year, after a busy year finishing the film score to “Fresh” (directed by Damian John Harper) and hot off of tour, she decided to leave Berlin behind and retreat back to a house by the sea in rural Sweden where she also gave birth to her first child, not far from where she grew up herself.

These life-changing circumstances, including becoming a mother, also meant a new point of view on many things, and a fresh look on herself, her needs and goals as an artist. Already in 2019 she sang “I was the passenger, now I’m the pilot”, and showed how emancipating it is to distance yourself from who you think you are or who you think you have to be, to be able to grow into a stronger and better version of yourself.

Just a quick glance at the full spectrum of her musical background and discography makes it clear that behind it stands a woman whose love for songwriting and performing paved the way. And it’s inevitable that for Emma Elisabeth Harper, there was never really any alternative or plan b.
This has not only resulted in fantastic musical output throughout various stages of her career, impressive collaborations and prestigious performances, but it has also transformed a young talented singer into a remarkable artist. Her inner creativity and musicality blooms and becomes obvious to anyone witnessing her on stage, which is something that the music industry, artist colleagues and creative partners alike haven’t slept on. “Emma Elisabeth” is constantly inspired by and hungry for new musical collaborators. Throughout her career she has worked with the likes of Victor Van Vugt (PJ Harvey & Nick Cave), Earl Harvin (AiR, Tindersticks), Alberta Cross and Nick McCarthy (Franz Ferdinand). She’s performed at SXSW (USA) two years in a row, played support- and headline tours and festivals such as SPOT-festival in Aarhus, Denmark.

Emma Elisabeth studied music in Stockholm, joined bands, moved to Berlin, got signed to EMI records and performed in the german pre-selection for ESC in 2013 under her alias “Betty Dittrich”. Hoping for a big break, instead she ended up being dropped by the merging label and found herself in legal struggles with producers (which would’ve knocked the wind out of most). Nonetheless, she decided to brush her shoulders off and get back on the horse, re-defined and re-focused. This led to her releasing a DIY cover album in 2016, in a sort of emancipation act.
It’s an album that for the first time hints towards how she manages to turn a painful situation into something powerful, leading her into new, creative and musical directions. “Cover Stories” (2016, DIY) puts her musical abilities in the spotlight. And in her very unique, lighthearted way it gracefully manages to show all the people previously standing in her way a steady middle finger.

Her follow-up album “Melancholic Milkshake” (2019, ferryhouse) brought her international acclaim, not only by the press. Being a testimony of life changing, earth shattering moments which are painful enough to knock you over, it also shines a light on the key to Emma Elisabeth’s self realisation: Her ability to turn personal life experiences into songs, to break up with the past and a desire to develop and move forward. This way, as a songwriter, she manages to re-invent herself creatively, even when career and personal life take major turns.
Not only is she influenced by her upbringing in a home where playing music was a natural part of life; her unwavering affection for brilliant artists like Fleetwood Mac, Patti Smith, Dolly Parton or Carole King is hard to miss.

Throughout her career she’s continuously played live, be it solo or with her band, which has become an essential part of her artist identity. She’s toured japan with her power pop band Shebang, played SXSW in 2018 and 2019, supported bands like Sunflower Bean and Mini Mansions and joined Cäthe on a tour throughout Germany in 2022. Last but not least in 2023 she played SPOT Festival in Denmark and toured Sweden with Ryan O’Reilly, pregnant as a house.
Her live performances have also made it onto vinyl as her label Clouds Hill invited her to make a live version of her 2022 album “Some Kind of Paradise”, which was recorded in the legendary studio in Hamburg and released later that year.

Now, Emma Elisabeth has new music in the works, and the first single off her upcoming album “a sudden break in the clouds” was released at the end of January 2025.