Heart of My Own

Basia’s 2007’s debut, Oh, My Darling, was a success both at home and on the international scene, garnering a Polaris Prize nomination, and praise from outlets like NPR, who labeled “In the Night” as “one of 2008’s great singles,” citing Bulat’s “graceful effervescence and … innate understanding of momentum.”

Like it’s predecessor, Heart of My Own was produced by Howard Bilerman at Hotel2Tango in Montreal, but it’s a decidedly more eclectic record in terms of the songwriting and instrumentation. “I think it is at times extremely sparse and, well, spacious, with big choirs singing,” Bulat says, “and then it gets really dense with really spirited and rolling drums.”

Nearly all the songs on Heart of My Own were written while on the road: traveling between cities, crossing the Canadian prairies, searching for a place to stop in the Nevada desert, trailing through the Smoky Mountains, standing in the bright dusk of a summer night in the Yukon. Perhaps most surprising was the strong influence her short time in the Yukon had on this album. Basia spent five days and nights in Dawson City, where for the first time she experienced true silence. “I felt my mind was overwhelmed with ideas. It had been a long-time dream of mine to make it to the Yukon, so to finally accomplish that, and for it to be possible because of my music, was also a very overwhelming thing.”