Melaina Kol, the alias of Nashville-based musician Logan Hornyak, is an ever-changing project. It’s changed drastically from 2018’s lo-fi record Bird Kill Worm, and it’s progressed from the Folktronica songs on 2021’s Amosat. Hornyak feels that every album should be different from the last.
He says:
I like to get on motifs or ideas, like a theme, and I like to change the way that I record every single time.
Hornyak’s new record, Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then, will be released on August 14th, 2026. The single and video for “Lifeheart” are out now. Hornyak decided to lean away from guitar and electronics almost altogether. Instead, he taught himself cello and harp and returned to his childhood piano training. He brought his early love of classical music together with an interest in Ambient and House music, to use the approach of Electronic music while using organic sounds. Classical instruments are chopped, looped and layered.
Many songs on Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then also lean away too from traditional vocals.
Hornyak says:
I was obsessed with not singing; I kept imagining vocal lines that didn’t really fit my voice.
Olivia O of Lowertown provided a vocal feature on the title track, which Hornyak sampled to create vocal textures across much of the rest of the album. Elsewhere, he would compose vocals by singing gibberish mouth sounds and letting the words that fit sonically fall into place.
He was influenced by Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and the animated movie When The Wind Blows, two works “about carrying a torch for hope through horrific circumstances.” He also feels there’s a trend of hopefulness that comes out in his work as a whole.
Hornyak recorded the album between home in Tennessee and a nearby studio. It was his first time getting to use a real studio for Melaina Kol songs, and he wanted the sound to be high-fidelity and stripped of effects.
Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then represents also finds Hornyak in a more settled stage of life.
He shares:
It’s a lot calmer than the last two albums. I did all those albums in my early 20s, when I was going through manic episodes and getting into drugs and stuff. But I would say this album is kinda like the other end of that — the coming out of that, I would say. In my life, I feel a lot more at peace, and I feel like the album translates that.
