I still can't believe we're actually here, announcing this project, releasing it into the world for everyone to hear... It's surreal in the best way possible. We've been working on it for at least two years now (9 years if you count us composing all these songs over time) and it all started, simply because I shared my remakes of "Cry of the Forest" and my original song "Lament" with Jordi. From there on it snowballed, because we're not happy with just doing one single thing... we love to overload ourselves with work and then getting through it in bursts of unholy lightspeed and snail pace.

My, what an adventure.

I can never truly anticipate where this journey with Jordi takes me and I honestly love it. We are both so very chaotic and working on this project (and the other releases we have planned) taught us much needed lessons about organisation and patience, which in turn helped us to get even better with music and ah- it's all so nice to look back. I'm tearing up a bit...

Since I shared my remakes we bounced ideas back and forth, realising that we had enough songs already to make an entire album out of them. Back in 2015 when Euphoria first was released we already had the idea to make an album, but we never really went through with it and the idea was just in the back of our heads until 2018 when we realised that we had grown so much as musicians that we should try again. For real this time, because now our audio quality is actually something you could listen to without wondering if we had any idea what we were doing... mind you, we still don't really know.

Although we only uploaded once in a blue moon, we had managed to gather a lot of music throughout the years and so we revisited each song, listening to them and trying to figure out what to improve or which songs we could breathe new life into and our choice fell on these 8 tracks which we put all our love into. But wait, we made more music, right? What happened to all the other tracks that didn't make the cut? Well~ who knows what the future holds ;)

These past two years have been exciting for sure!

Countless times people approached us asking if they could support us more than they already did, or if we are on Spotify and so far we never could give a truly satisfying answer, which is why this release is even more special. While I love all our first versions we made, they were terribly unprofessional and full with mistakes, muddiness, weird decisions and little annoyances here and there and I personally couldn't have endorsed the thought of putting these versions out on Spotify- or worse, asking for money for them.

So many people wanted to support us further, so many people wrote to us, commented, liked, shared, listened to our music and every single time it's something special and I still can't believe it and I'm very, very grateful. So I hope you enjoy our remasters and remakes on this album. We thought of you in every single one of them.

If you prefer the old versions there is nothing to worry about: They will stay on YouTube. We won't just go and delete everything now that we have new shiny versions. We'll leave them up just so you can compare them if you so wish, or maybe you're old-school and enjoy some good Forest Elves nostalgia, lol. I sure do. It's fun to compare these

Mind you, even with this release, our music is still completely free. You can get Roots on our website here and can choose to pay whichever amount you see fit. No matter what amount you choose, or if you download it for free even, we're grateful and absolutely thrilled that you supported us and hopefully you'll enjoy this release <3

- Merry

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It's really hard to believe we're announcing this finally, as it's been in the works for such a long while now. Over the years, people have asked us if we have albums, or if we can upload our music to Spotify, or if there are ways in which they can support us more than by listening to our music, watching our videos, or leaving comments. I've said it a few times now, but this has always brought such a heartwarming feeling to me, because we've always been about keeping our music free so that anyone is able to listen to it without any limitations. Yet even though we do this, people still want to support us in further ways, even if they don't have to. We may not be the biggest artist out there, but I'd definitely say we have a very special support-base that we've seen stick with us over the years. I always feel so grateful for this, and it motivates me to keep making music! 

Roots: The First Chapter is something we've wanted to do for a while now. We've created and released music so sporadically over the years, and we are constantly working on improving our skills and capibilities when it comes to the process of making music. Every one of our songs has a special place in our heart (which is why you can find all the original recordings of our songs still on YouTube, and in the Archive on our site here, under the music section), but hindsight is a wonderful thing. As we grow and develop, we think of new ways we could have made our older songs even better, that we didn't have the skills to achieve at the time. As we level up, we wanted to bring our beloved older songs with us too! Each of the songs on this album has had a glow up, be it a completely new and original arrangement, new vocal re-recordings, mastering, or all three of these. Rather than just re-release the songs you're all familiar with and have grown to love over the years, we wanted to properly put the time and love into polishing them as best as we can at this point in time. 

This has been such an insanely fun project to work on... there is something endlessly satisfying about revisiting old recordings and further working on them, years into the future. Hearing the 'before' and 'after' side-by-side is even more so! This is something that I am personally really proud to be releasing with Merry, and it only took us 9 years to release a proper album! We decided to name this album "Roots" for a few different reasons, but mainly because the premise of it was revisiting where we came from and going back to our 'roots'. We also realised when we were talking about it, that 'Roots' is THE very first word of our very first song that we released on Forest Elves (from Cry of the Forest) ..."Roots and leaves, soulless thieves." It just made perfect sense. 

So, here is Roots: The First Chapter, brought to you with love and as a thank you for all your kindness and support over the years. You may notice that not every one of our old songs is included on the album, or you might wonder if there will be another chapter to this story of our Roots. Well, you will just have to wait and see! ^_~ 

- Jordi

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You can download "Roots: The First Chapter" in MP3 for free (or pay what you want) here on our website, you can listen to it on Spotify, or if you wish to support us financially you can also get a download of Roots in any high quality format of your choice on our Bandcamp!

 

Get "Roots: The First Chapter": || ➤Pay What You Want || ➤Bandcamp || ➤Spotify ||

 

Every cent goes into further Forest Elves projects and no matter how you chose to support us, we are both eternally grateful! :)