Elephant Run are not your average band, and Leftover Land is not your average sophomore album. It’s not even fair to call this just a “record.” It’s a reclamation — of old ideas, long-distance friendships, and a creative spark that refused to die, no matter how far apart its flames had drifted.

Born from the unlikely combo of São Paulo’s raw, experimental rock energy and Malmö’s introspective, glacial cool, this band lives in the tension between polarities — and that tension is what makes Leftover Land so magnetic.

What exactly is Elephant Run’s sound? Let’s call it Nordic Tropical — part stormy sky, part sweaty basement gig. Think if Björk and PJ Harvey took a road trip through the Brazilian mountains with Os Mutantes blasting from the stereo and Radiohead nervously scribbling notes in the back seat. The result is layered, textural, emotional — and totally alive.

You’ve got—Amanda Wahlström Plantin’s haunting, often heart-wrenching vocals and delicate piano. Fernando Coelho’s guitar work that flips between post-rock ambience and psychedelic grit. Ladislau Kardos’s driving, shape-shifting drumming and Renato Cortez’s basslines anchoring the whole thing with groove and intention.

It’s not always pretty, but it’s always compelling. There’s beauty, yes, but there’s also dissonance, grief, triumph — sometimes all in one song.

Let’s talk origin story — because Leftover Land is as much about its making as it is about what ended up on the record.

The band hit pause in 2018 when Amanda returned to Sweden. Cue a global pandemic, two years of creative limbo, and what felt like an indefinite hiatus.

Fast forward to 2022: Amanda returns to São Paulo. One jam session becomes many. One idea snowballs into a full album. Within weeks, they pack up and head deep into the hills of Minas Gerais to record at Mato Records Studio. Think misty mountain vibes, no distractions, all heart.

Five days. Four musicians. One shared mission: bring these half-finished ideas — the “leftovers” — roaring back to life.

This isn’t an album you put on in the background. This is sit-in-the-dark, headphones-on, do-not-disturb music. It’s cinematic. It’s cathartic. And it’s not afraid to take its time.

“We Are Heroes” is the crown jewel — a 9-minute emotional marathon that starts soft and introspective, then crescendos into a crashing, soul-shaking climax. It’s about duality, survival, the sheer mess of being human. They didn’t just play this song — they lived in it. Every take began from the top, every time. That devotion is baked into every note.

Each track feels like a different corner of their leftover land — echoes of the past reimagined in the now, with all the scars and surprises left intact.

They toured Brazil in 2024 — and if you weren’t there, you missed something special. A packed show at Bar Alto in São Paulo and a roof-raising set at Audio Rebel in Rio proved that what you hear on the record is just a sliver of the live experience.

They bring that same sweaty, telepathic energy onstage — like four friends who haven’t seen each other in a year and are making up for lost time in front of an audience.

Here’s the thing: Leftover Land could’ve easily not existed. The band was scattered across hemispheres. Life got complicated. The pandemic made impossible even the simplest dreams. But Elephant Run kept the embers alive — through demos, remote sessions, unfinished ideas scribbled on old laptops.

And when they finally came together again? They didn’t waste a second.

This album is what happens when you love making music too much to let go, even when it would’ve been easier to stop. And you can feel that urgency — not desperation, but determination — in every track.

Elephant Run didn’t just return with a new record. They returned with a mission. To make art that’s vulnerable, brave, weird, beautiful — and honest. This album is a love letter to music-making itself, and to the weird, wonderful places that “leftovers” can take you when you trust them enough to follow.

If you’re a fan of layered, emotional, cinematic rock with just enough dirt under the nails, don’t just stream this — sit with it. Let it crawl under your skin. Let it remind you that creativity doesn’t care about geography, and neither does magic.

“Leftover Land” is available now on all major streaming platforms

Listen to Elephant Run and other similar artists on our Spotify Playlist ‘New Music Spotlight - Indie & Alternative’

“Leftover Land” - Elephant Run

“In The Shadow Of Time” - Shyfrin Alliance

“Good To Be Alive” - Dryadic