Stockholm-based singer, songwriter and producer LonelyTwin (Madelene Eliasson) shared the first taste of what’s sure to be a busy year for the young artist with a new single & lyric video for “If I Know Myself,” out now via Ultra Music (Calvin Harris, Steve Aoki, Deadmau5, Kaskade, Kygo, Sofi Tukker). Astral vocal harmonies glide over an understated, yet propulsive mix of synths and guitars as Madelene reflects on a relationship forever stuck at ‘what if.’ “The single comes from such a genuine place,” she says. “I was so in love with this girl, but I couldn’t tell her because nothing about the timing was right. I was still hoping it might work out because I know I have a hard time letting go when I feel like something is real.”

While the name LonelyTwin evokes longing (Madelene herself being a Gemini), the project due later this year arrives fully formed: a genre-blurring combination of inventive trip-hop, smart indie pop, and evocative electronic folk that subtly slides between blue mood and hard-earned joy. Eliasson’s songs are spectral yet heavy with emotion, and she has the voice to match — a rich but airy coo that coasts through a soundscape of strummed guitar, programmed drums, and intuitively arranged odds and ends. Meanwhile, her lyrics aim for an honesty that’s elusive in real life — like confessions whispered in the dark to the twin sister you never had. 
 
Though LonelyTwin is new, it builds on Eliasson’s past lives in music: working for others as half of the pop songwriting/production team MAD FUN (Le Youth, SHY Martin) and teaming up with Jonathan Olofsson as Jo&Me, whose cover of Drake’s “Too Good” racked up blogosphere love in 2017. LonelyTwin’s additional releases include her most recent nostalgic breakup bop “My Heart” and a remix of MGMT’s iconic track “Electric Feel,” which further hints not just at her vast array of influences, but the general vibe she’s going for: sensual, end-of-the-night party jams built from rich guitar loops and yearning, feather-light vocals. She doesn’t rule out collaboration for the far more personal LonelyTwin, but every song begins and ends with Eliasson, alone, in the studio. That approach harkens back to her youth in the wooded Swedish suburbs. As the youngest child, she was given space to get lost in her own world. “I like staying in that one moment of creativity for as long as I can,” she says. “There’s usually something magic in that moment.”

Photo Courtesy: Märta Thisner