ARTISTS / Dæva
Dæva
Beta Persei
Catalog Numbers: FH-045 / FH:VI-019
Release Date: November 25, 2016
Genre: Synth Pop / Post-Chillwave / Post-Witch House
Radio Friendly: Yes
Type: Album
Purchase: Bandcamp
Links: Discogs Info | Spotify
pressing information
Digital: Worldwide
Cassette Tape: Furhoof: Sixth Man
1st Press (2016): 100
Transparent glitter cassette with black imprint A-side, full-color 4-Panel J-Card (two-sided), in a clear plastic Norelco case. Hand-numbered.
Tracklisting
1. Dream – 02:19
2. Drown – 02:48
3. Float – 02:56
4. Ache – 04:13
5. Bloom – 02:57
6. Love – 04:16
7. Fly – 04:11
8. Run – 04:35
9. Fall – 03:09
10. Kiss – 04:39
Total Run Time: 36:03
Side Split: A 1-5, B 6-10
Lyrics: Clean
Credits
All songs written & recorded by Dæva.
Photography by Gigi Mead.
Design & Layout by Ryan McCardle.
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Dedicated to Aubrey.
Release Biography
Dæva (pronounced day-va) is the solo experimental pop act of Gigi Mead. Dæva resides in Brooklyn, NY with their cat Aubrey where they cast spells, sling books, and write songs. Their debut album ‘Beta Persei’ collects 10 songs of love, loss, and X-Files. It was released November 25th 2016 digitally worldwide, as well as on limited edition cassette via Furious Hooves.
Mead spoke with Impose Magazine about their moniker and more back in 2016. “Dæva is a phrase from the ancient Avestan language, loosely meaning demon, while the term ‘Beta Persei’ refers to a star known as Algol, or the demon star, in the Perseus constellation. I like to think that Dæva is my wild/raw identity and Beta Persei is the magic space I create and am born from. I wrote ‘Beta Persei’ during my senior year of college, when I was living alone for the first time. It’s very much about who I am when I’m by myself — daydreaming, or feeling lonely, or nostalgic, or in love. I wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered the entire album from my bed. The track list is in chronological order of when I wrote each song and you can hear the production quality and music styles shift dramatically over the course of the album as I experiment and teach myself along the way. ‘Beta Persei’ is also about the healing process after ending a long-term relationship and discovering femme/queer empowerment and independence through music.”
Press & Accolades
Gorilla vs. Bear’s “Best Songs of 2013” featuring Dæva’s song “Dream.”
“Dream” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP was included in BIRP!’s January 2017 Playlist.
“Butterflies with snowflake wings landing in a mass on a tetherball court.”
– SMALL ALBUMS, review of “Dream” from 'Beta Persei’ LP.
“Here's a glittery, ethereal dream-pop gem from Brooklyn's Gigi Mead, aka Dæva: "Dream" is the opening track from [their] beautifully vaporous, two-years-in-the-making, X-Files-inspired debut LP ‘Beta Persei’, which has provided a very welcome and chill (and even occasionally danceable) escapist vibe for us these past few nights.”
– Gorilla vs. Bear, review of “Dream” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP.
“Lush and downright fantastical, Dæva's single "Dream" is exactly the after-hours escape you need.”
– The Grey Estates, premiere of “Dream” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP.
“Indeed, the meaning of [“Ache”] is similarly ambiguous, emotions pushing in with tangible weight but diminishing upon closer inspection, like bright lights visiting your patch of sky before passing on, zipping up and away to wherever such things go, leaving only the slow creep of melancholy and a latent anxious twitch.”
"['Ache'] is immersed in the dreamlike quality of being overly familiar and unnervingly uncanny, where memories and wishes intermingle to form a vivid-yet-spectral landscape perpetually on the verge of evaporating."
– Various Small Flames, premiere of “Ache” from ‘Beta Persei’ LP.
“‘Beta Persei’ opens with the sanctuary of visions on the hopeful anthem of excitement & longing heard on ‘Dream,’ that traverses to the paranormal like vocal edit chops of ‘Drown,’ to the track ‘Float’ that actually acts upon the title by creating the free-feeling of levitation. Introverted bedroom pop & all the pensive sentiments simmer on the dance-infused beat of ‘Ache,’ to the subterranean resonances heard on ‘Bloom,’ that then sprouts to the timeless vintage dance rager ‘Love,’ which later delves into the abstract ether of the otherworldly ethereal plains of the sky soaring ‘Fly.’ The northwest sound of unbound & original creativity bursts forth on ‘Run’ that does things that you rarely hear anywhere, whereas ‘Fall’ provides words of caution & warning for eager hearts, ending with the amorous sparkle & shimmer of ‘Kiss’ that keeps you craving more.”
– Impose Magazine, interview & review of ‘Beta Persei’ LP.