The Wolf & The Bear
ThE WOLF & THE BEAR is the SECOND track on RICHELE’S second EP, Eladia UNDER HER MUSICAL MONIKER, HELE.
A R T I S T ‘ S N O T E S
by Hele
THIS EP IS THICK WITH DREAMS, DISREALITY, and the persistence of color. I created the album art, a sort of Bladerunner meets Wong Kar-Wai fever dream, with the aid of Wombo, an AI image generator. And while it got the job done, the process also just felt ... weird.
Imagine if some tech nerd at a happy hour years ago told you that in 2024, instead of using cameras to take pictures of actual life, we would be telling computers to create photographic imitations—of fake life. You’d have told them to have another drink. (And I might have.)
Is the technology astounding? Absolutely. But the creative act is disappointingly prosaic. And when the images finally appear—people or places that never existed in moments that never occurred—the awe that momentarily takes hold is immediately supplanted by vague ... distrust.
Anyway.
Around the time I wrote The Wolf & The Bear, I was listening on repeat to Kaspar Kaae’s superb score to the film, Out Stealing Horses. The first track, Elven, which opens with the brusque clatter of dulcimer and violin against simple off-beat claps, is musical storytelling at its finest. It seems definite that the initial violin melody of The Wolf & The Bear was inspired by Kaae’s clean style; a spare, open prairie theme that unspools into criss-crossing lines. Lines in which I hear two voices, at once pensive and urgent. An inquisition, perhaps. Or an internal debate.
The concept of the self as parts of a whole has always resonated. A Native American friend once told me that my two spirit animals would wrestle eternally—my bear nature against the call of the wolf.
“The bear is transformation, big medicine. Courage to follow your instincts. The wolf is reliance on others, loyalty and devotion, safety in numbers.”
For any artist, a life of creative pursuit requires clarity and balance—knowing when to push and when to rest; when to collaborate, when to work alone; when to disregard popular culture, when to flow into it.
Also fundamental to the artistic process? Letting go. A deep, abiding peace comes when we accept that life is constant change. The harder we hold on to ideas, things, ego, even people, the farther we drift from true freedom. Authentic art requires the willingness to be reborn as many times as necessary, until the work is ready to be set free. The final result may not resemble the thing it was when you first started, but the journey it has taken is imperative to its beauty.
The most poignant art is an honest, hard-won expression of what is real, not a safe imitation of something false. Do art for the act. Do it because it would be against your unique and intrinsic nature—whether wolf or bear—not to.
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P R O D U C E R ‘ S N O T E S
by Andy Dollerson
Working with Richele is ace, as she’s very accommodating to my flights of creative fancy, and explorations. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but I think we’ve gotten to some really cool places sonically, by having that freedom to explore.
I love the contrast of light and heavy in The Wolf & The Bear. The melody starts out really fragile in the way it’s performed, and then soars as it travels along. Because I wanted to both ground that and provide a balance, I used quite a heavy, subby kick drum alongside the sub bass, to give it some real weight.
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