Last night was a wonderful and beautiful intimate sold-out show at FONO with Montreal’s Helena Deland and Melbourne, Australia’s Hana Stretton.
It was one of those quieter Thursday nights where the room felt perfectly suited for the music.
Surprisingly, Helena Deland was first to perform, giving us a lovely intimate acoustic pop set.
She moved through selected tracks from her 2023 album Goodnight Summerland, including “Swimmer” and “Strawberry Moon,” along with the title track from her 2020 debut Someone New.
It was also great to hear some new material, including her recently released song “How Do You Like Me Now,” giving us a little preview of where Helena might be heading next. The stripped-down setting really brought out another side of her songwriting.
There are so many different facets to Helena Deland as an artist, and it was really nice to catch her in this solo setting. Without a full band behind her, the songs felt even more personal and intimate.
Ending the night was Hana Stretton with an equally beautiful acoustic folk-pop set featuring songs from her latest album tiarn, which came out in August. Her spacious, delicate approach to songwriting worked perfectly in the intimate FONO setting.
The best part of the night was seeing both artists join each other on stage toward the end of the evening to sing each other’s songs.
It was a lovely way to bring the two performances together and made the already intimate night feel even more special.
Overall, it was a wonderful Thursday night at FONO, with two talented artists bringing their own unique takes on intimate folk, pop and singer-songwriter music.
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