“You talk about money and the state of the land
Why don’t you ask me how I am?”

In the space of four minutes the new single from Lena Anderssen, State of the Land, takes you on a journey from melancholic introversion to extroverted stormy heights before landing peacefully, yet unresolved, with the words:

“Oh let it go and let it be
There’s no need to go digging where the hole is deep
But in between coffee and your master plan
Why don’t you ask me how I am?”

With State of the Land Lena Anderssen, the Faroese-Canadian singer and songwriter, continues her unwavering music journey; from being discovered while singing to herself waiting tables at a coffee shop in the Faroese capital, Torshavn, to recording her sixth album with the late legend Geoff Emerick – a record engineer that in many ways came to define the groundbreaking English sound of the 60s era with his work with The Beatles.

Emerick heard Lena’s previous award-winning album Eagle In The Sky and agreed to record her next album.

For Lena and her producer, Niclas Johannesen, Geoff Emerick agreeing to record the album was the perfect scenario. Lena says, “When we sat down in late 2017 to make plans for the next album, we knew we really wanted to create something that was built on the virtues of a band accompanying a singer, performing live in the studio without a click track. And we asked ourselves, ‘Who would be the ultimate engineer to do that?’ Geoff Emerick was the obvious name. And when we talked with him on the phone for the first time it was clear that this English gentleman was everything we could have wished for and more.”

Rewind to April 1966 and the young Geoff Emerick starts work as a recording engineer on his first album Revolver with The Beatles.

Fast forward to March 2018 and the now 72-year-old Grammy winning engineer sits behind the console at LAFX in Los Angeles as Lena Anderssen and her band finish recording take number four of the song State of the Land. Lena and her producer, Niclas Johannesen, have brought with them bass player Jóhannus á Rógvu Joensen, drummer Matt Chamberlain, piano player Matt Rollings and guitar player Jon Sosin to record the song with them. They do a total of four takes. Take four is the keeper. It’s also decided that State of the Land will be the album’s title track. And from the very first note it’s obvious that Geoff Emerick is still on top of his game – razor sharp, humble and very passionate as he puts all his focus into the music.

What nobody knew that day was that State of the Land would become the last album Geoff Emerick ever recorded.

He died on October 2, 2018. The tributes poured in from various people he had worked with. One notable tribute came from Sir Paul McCartney. “We spent many exciting hours in the studio and he never failed to come up with the goods”, McCartney wrote. “He was a great engineer and friend, and although The Beatles had many great engineers over the years Geoff was the ONE.”

Geoff Emerick has left us but his work still remains.

Lena Anderssen’s single State of the Land was released on August 14th through Songcrafter Music.

www.lenamusic.com