Elena Dakota on EDN’s new LP ‘fire eats air’

Ever-elusive, the multi-monikered Elena Dakota has been quietly creating fantastic music for over a decade in the Australian DIY scene. Aside from her electronic solo moniker EDN, you may recognise the folk music made under her given name, her features with Heathcote Blue, or the trio INTRODUCTION, based in her hometown Adelaide.

For a few years now she’s been based in Derby, and her new EP comes with a suite of music videos that pay homage to the wide open floodwaters of the quiet Kimberley port town.

fire eats air is a perplexing yet entrancing electronics record that pulls you deeper each listen. Nodding to the esotericism of producers like Lolina and Okay Kaya, the album pairs up-close vocal musings with sparse repetitive drum loops and spacious synth pads, occasionally tumbling into dark downtempo break beats and outsider bass realms. As always, Dakota’s lyricism lends a singularly strange perspective over everyday occurences.

The second full length album under the EDN moniker, this record shapeshifts between multiple musical genres, stumbling upon off-kilter grooves, breakbeats, spacious hovering synth pads and dubbed out vocals.

Annika Moses caught up with Elena to talk all things EDN, playful experimentation and not saying ‘no’ during the record’s creation.