Emilie Kahn—the Montreal artist behind Emilie & Ogden—made waves a few weeks ago by covering Taylor Swift’s “Style” on her harp (whose name, naturally, is Ogden). And while having a couple of hundred thousand people watch you play is no joke, it does put Kahn in the unenviable position of having to follow up what might as well amount to a hit record these days. That she has to do so with a harp—an instrument whose official title might as well be owned by Joanna Newsom, given how deeply she’s colonized it in the popular imagination—makes things even harder.
Fortunately for her, Kahn is a gifted singer and songwriter. She knows it, too, and in the best possible way. “Ten Thousand,” the kinda/sorta title track from her forthcoming LP 10 000, finds her staring down the responsibility that accompanies any gift: “I am a slave to ten thousand talents,” she sings over arpeggiating harp strings. The song grows as it goes, those notes braiding into a clapping drum track and a fuzzed-out bass while a synth patch slowly overtakes the band and serves as a reminder that the harp is an instrument, not a genre.
10 000 tracklist
“Blame”
“Ten Thousand”
“Closer”
“White Lies”
“Nothing New”
“Babel”
“Long Gone”
“Go Home”
“What Happened”
“Hold Me Down”
“Dream”
Emilie will also be taking Ogden on a trek across the US and Canada this fall. Those dates are below.
15 — Saint-Georges, QC — Cegep Beauce-Appalaches
18 — Victoria, BC — Rifflandia
19 — Vancouver, BC — The Media Club
30 — Ottawa, ON — Troubadour
October
2 — Montreal, QC — Gesu
3 — Quebec City, QC — L’Anti
November
9 — Boston, MA — Club Passim
11 — Philadelphia, PA — Boot & Saddle
12 — Newtown Square, PA — Burlap and Bean
15 — Chicago, IL — The Hideout
21 — Sherbrooke, QC — Boquébière
December
5 — Lévis, QC — Vieux Bureau de Poste
