Music from the Heart

Declan Sinnott is a big name in the Irish music scene. He gained international success with Mary Black, for whom he produced 6 albums. He was her producer, guitarist and musical director. After this he worked with Christy Moore for 20 years. Evelyn Kallansee was born on the tropical island of Curaçao, grew up in the Netherlands and lives in Co. Kerry, Ireland now.

She has gone from singing in musicals like Les Misérables to touring world wide with an acid Jazz Band (Tristan) and everything in between. She sang vocals for famous Dutch singers and international stars performing in the Netherlands, like Johnny Logan, Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet) and Jocelyn Brown. When she moved to Ireland in 2020 everything changed due to the lockdown. Meeting Dec was the beginning of another life in music.

Evelyn and Declan started working together in the dark winter of 2020. Now they’ve stepped into the light. They have written and recorded an album together and have had radio success with the first three tracks serviced to radio, ‘Who Has Coloured You Blue’, ‘Make For Joy’, and ‘Half of the Moon’, in the last few months.Together they have found a new path through the woods.

The album opens with "Who has coloured you blue", a gentle encouraging ballad telling the listener that nothing is as bad as it seems and tomorrow will be another day. Evelyn's vocal is delicate, warm and resolute at the same time. She's the perfect guide to follow into the brighter days and leave the sorrow behind.

Kallansee sings with feeling, understanding. Like a balm on a wound, her voice heals from the inside. There's confidence, consoling, compassion. "Just like a child" is touching romance where the guitar skills of Declan Sinnott truly take center stage.

"I wanna know why"  changes the dynamics completely and not only because of the male lead vocal but thanks also to its jazzy arrangement. The jazzy guitar could be heard also on "Half of the Moon".

"I love everything I see" is one of the most upbeat tracks on the album. Standing still while listening to this will prove difficult for those who let themselves be taken over by the rhytms within. There's a bit of funky in this song too and overall it sounds like Evelyn Kallansee was born to focus on this genre in particular. Howvever, she's showing she can do pretty much anything, putting her experience in service of all the songs on Make for Joy and addding that extra layer of emotions and connection with the listener.

In haunting "Cover Me" she's showing the vulnerability and fragility of a human being. The delivery is a combination of speaking and singing which only intensifies the overall impact.

"River, river" is an atmospheric track taking the listener on a journey, both through the story within the song and also a journey within oneself. "You go over, you go under, you go round." The vivid imagery and the arrangement strongly based on percussion, guitar and spiced up by the violin makes this song a standout on already high quality album.