Estonian composer and musician Hanakiv is Gondwana Records’ latest addition, and she is blending classical with electronic music.

Based in London now, Hanakiv is both a sound artist and a pianist who released her incredible debut album, Goodbye.

Music plays a significant role in her Estonian culture. Coming from a musical family, it is only natural that Hanakiv takes on this path to sculpt something uniquely hers for the world to hear, especially after moving to London, where she could express herself freely.

The young composer and musician draw musical influences for her brand of meditative piano-based ambient music with classical and dark electronic undertones from artistes like Tim Hecker, Björk, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Aphex Twin, and her cultural heritage too.

For sure, Hanakiv is a melting pot of unconventional tunes that will fill your soundscapes.

We spoke to the artiste about her journey into music, her Estonian heritage, producing her first album and more.

Hi Hanakiv, how’s 2023 starting out for you so far?

Hi, 2023 has started out strong.

Tell us a little bit about your journey up to this point.

I come from a musicians’ family from my mother’s side and I was definitely rebelling a bit against becoming a musician. As a child, I even promised my mother I’d never become one.

I started playing handbells and piano at around the age of between eight to nine, and continued with composition in high school. I also studied electroacoustic composition for a Master’s degree. I’ve spent a bit of time sudying in Reykjavik and Malmö, as well.

I kept myself quite busy when I was growing up – I had different activities on most of the days of the week. I grew up in the capital but spent all my summers and winter breaks on the island called Hiiumaa or in south of Estonia.

I was a teenager when I first realised I might want to pursue music more professionally, and focus on that. My first piano teacher and first composition teacher have both inspired me quite a lot in that. As long as I remember I have always been interested in creating my own music.

What were your earliest memories of music?

Earliest memories of music are with my grandmother who is a choir conductor and a music teacher.

I asked her to take me to her choir rehearsals a lot, and one of the brightest one that comes to mind is sitting under the grand piano at one of the rehearsals and just listening to the choir. I’ve been told I was always at the piano and curious to play since I was very little, and I do have some memories of playing the piano at my grandmother’s place as well.

Classical music was always around, but as a child I was just listening to mainstream pop music. Regina Spektor is the first artiste that I really liked – her piano playing was very inspiring.

I was never forced to play music or practice, but this is definitely one of the habits I picked up – dedicating time to practice and setting time aside to focus.

Music started out as just having fun for me – I never thought or was made to feel that this will definitely be my route or I would have to do it.

There was time later, when I had to make up for it and put more effort in, and practice really is the only thing that gives you technique so there was no way around it.

How do you view sound and how important it is in your music and daily life?

Sound for me is very much connected to space. They come together. I’m interested in sound as almost like a material that you can play around with and I’m always curious about the connections of acoustic and electronic worlds.

Having a specific sound to music is something that I am interested in. You can have same structures – the melodies, chords or none of these things, but depending on how it’s sounding, it can create very different atmospheres and trigger different feelings.

What do you think you bring to the table that artistes have not to make yourself stand out?

I believe that everyone who learns who they are and stays true to that, has a lot to bring to the table. I just try to be myself as much as I can and trust my intuition.

I think I have been able to turn the things that I considered to be my weaknesses (not fitting into genres for example) into my strengths.

How does your Estonian heritage inspire you as an artiste and the music you create?

The first thing that comes to my mind is nature – I’ve only started thinking about this influence after moving to London.

Spending time in nature creates a different kind of mindset and I am trying to access this mindset once in a while. It’s the calmness and realisation there are much greater things than your everyday problems or musical decisions.

My good friend recently sent me the nicest gift – I told her that the thing I miss the most living in London is the sea, and she sent me a little painting of the sea that she did herself.

Tell us more about how you decided to land on “No Words Left” with Alabaster DePlume as your debut single. What did you learn most from that collaboration?

I completely trusted Matthew Halsall’s opinion on this and I’m very glad I did. For me, “No Words Left” feels the most vulnerable, and it would’ve been much easier to go with any of the other singles.

Alabaster came to the studio for about an hour or two and just did his magic. From this collaboration (as well as from the whole process of making this album) I learnt probably to trust the process.

This song started making so much more sense to me after he improvised on it, he is almost like speaking through his saxophone – telling a story. He is an amazingly sensitive musician, who really listens to the song and respects it.

Tell us more about your first album Goodbyes.

This album started with me finding my way back to my instrument. I started practicing piano again during lockdown and ended up improvising and coming up with some new material.

At one point I had a few pieces for prepared piano that I wanted to record and luckily, I met sound engineer Fi Roberts while recording piano for a mutual friend at around that time. We were both interested in prepared piano, and she invited me to record at Strongroom Studios where she works, and we spent two days recording all the prepared piano pieces.

She had all the tools to prepare the piano, and she let me use them. I think we were both very excited to have found a fellow piano enthusiast and we decided that if there’s anything else I wanted to record we’d do it together.

So, every time I had something new to record, I would call her, and we’d go to the studio. We recorded it over the period of about eight or nine months and we ended up becoming friends and that whole process of creating this album was very fun.

Without Fi this album would not exist the way it does. I feel lucky that I was able to record these songs like this – almost capture them raw. I also didn’t feel any pressure creating an album so I spent months just playing around with the recorded material and trying out different things.

I named it Goodbyes because after looking back at the songs it seemed that this is what I was doing – saying (or playing) my goodbyes.

In addition to Alabaster DePlume, I also had Christina Lopez playing drums and Rebekah Reid playing violin on the album. I am very grateful to have been able to work with all of the people who worked on it.

What do you hope listeners take away from your debut album?

I hope that this album will reach people who it will speak to in any kind of way. I hope it could be comforting and allow people to feel.

If you could compare this Goodbyes album to a movie, what would it be and why?

It would probably be a slow movie that you wouldn’t want to watch everyday, and you have no idea how it ends when you start it, but you’d feel a tiny bit different after watching it.

If you could only listen to one album, what would it be and why?

Tim Hecker – Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again. This album has just stayed with me, and I don’t see myself getting sick of it.

Besides the album, what else do you hope to achieve in 2023?

I want to make and record more music and spend time with my god-daughter.

All Images: Joosep Kivimäe

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Writer | Kevin Yeoh

When he isn’t making sure Sound of Life stories are published in a timely manner, Kevin enjoys wandering aimlessly in Kuala Lumpur city, going down the YouTube rabbit hole and discovering new music.