Helenor is a world builder. Born in the bedroom of Brooklyn-based visual artist and songwriter David DiAngelis, Helenor is the DIY sonic and visual exploration of DiAngelis’s relationship to metamorphosis, moments of frustrating stasis, and habits (both good and bad). To experience a Helenor track is to be transported to a place where even depression shimmers a bit, where existential questions offer catharsis in lieu of answers, where summer heat permeates year round, and where the clouds carry poetic messages as they roll by for anyone who happens to want to look up.

Following the success of the DIY debut release “Something Twice”, DiAngelis found himself in the most transitional period of his life. Packing up all of his possessions squarely into a storage locker, he moved to NYC, just as the pandemic began to loosen its white knuckle grip. Everything stable and consistent in his life was now a question, and songwriting became the new way of feeling grounded.  

“If you’re consistently unhappy in your life, then you should change something,” DiAngelis explains. “That was the ethos I was trying to embody across this record. So while I psyched myself up for everything changing, I wrote a record about changing everything.”

The much-anticipated release features a more refined production style as well as multiple voices and collaborators such as Vishal Nayak (Nick Hakim, Hannah Cohen) and Josh Bonati (Beach Fossils, Mac Demarco). Prominent lead guitars shine, while Helenor’s recognizable guitar-meets-synths bedrock and lyric poetry reminds one of floating in a cool body of water along the side of a highway.

The results are “A public place”, an 11-song album about taking the big risk, and watching the punishments and rewards happen in real time.