Ewert and the Two Dragons - Circles (2015) [Hi-Res]

Despite the impressive journey Ewert And The Two Dragons have already been on, there’s always somewhere new to go. While the four-piece band started playing covers in their native Estonia and have since become a worldwide draw thanks to smart, quirky pop songs and a slew of major awards, in order to make their newest album, Circles, the group went somewhere they’d never been before.

“It was definitely a special process for us,” frontman Ewert Sundja explains. “Our previous two records were quickly recorded in a small Estonian town without any fancy equipment. This time we spent over a month in a studio in the U.S. - and that was a big thing.”

Logging time at Bear Creek Studio wasn’t the only new experience for the group - Sundjan, guitarist Erki Pärnoja, drummer Kristjan Kallas and bassist Ivo Etti - who in 2013 won the European Border Breakers Award. For the first time, the band not only recorded in a studio but wrote their tracks there as well. The band - who’ve been playing together since 2008 - found themselves embracing new sounds and new ways of thinking about music.

"This new album is different than the albums before, while we were recording it seemed like everyone was having the same kind of questions and thinking about the same things and this became a concept for the album," Sundja adds. "Even though we're barely in our thirties, the aging process is the main theme of this album. We all started understanding more about life in general, hence the album title Circles. Everything is turning and we're suddently back in the same place we've been before, wondering about love and life and death and right and wrong."

Unlike the band's previous two albums, which were recorded in Estonia without a strict timeframe, "Circles" was made in Seattle, at Bear Creek Studio, in a few fast weeks. The deadline didn't intimidate them much, says band member Erki Pärnoja, because the band was ready to rip in the studio after being on the road almost nonstop for the previous two years, where they'd evolved into a tighter, stronger and braver unit.

"Circles" is an album about going through changes. "I really felt I had been walking in a circle for years and years," says Pärnoja about the idea behind the title-track and the album. "So I just had to say it out loud, and saying it out loud liberated me from that circle. I'm leading a totally different life now."

Tracklist:
01. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Million Miles (3:44)
02. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Pictures (4:40)
03. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Speechless (4:12)
04. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Getting Older (4:03)
05. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Gold Digger (3:50)
06. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Circles (4:33)
07. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Could Have Been (4:12)
08. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Waiting for the Weather to Change (4:05)
09. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Stranger (4:41)
10. Ewert and the Two Dragons - Warhorses (3:53)