Leyla Yenirce’s new album, Souvenirs, was composed by the artist under her music project Rosaceae during a residency in Paris in January 2024. During her stay, the artist visited the Sacré-Cœur cathedral in Montmartre, overlooking the city. Yenirce was reminded of the construction of the Ilisu Dam and the subsequent flooding in her home region, as the artist’s family had to exhume and relocate their ancestral tombs to the tops of neighboring mountains. Through Souvenirs, the artist imagines a space in which the listener can convoke with the dead, where the living are long gone. Yenirce shapes sound through recorded vocals, field recordings, and ambient instrumentation. The album cover includes a self-portrait of the artist en route to her brother’s wedding, once again layering the artist’s personal archive with larger geopolitical realities.
The album was written and produced by the artist with additional vocals by Shira Lewis, mixed by Anders Fallesen and mastered by Rashad Becker. The vinyl copy includes a text written by Mazlum Nergiz.
The vinyl copy of Souvenirs is available at the Petzel Bookstore.