Greek songwriter Σtella has just released her fifth studio album – the hypnotic and inciting Adagio on the leading American record label Sub Pop.

Adagio is a pop record that feels like a warm blanket on a cool summer evening. The album wraps the listener in nylon-stringed guitars, laid-back percussion, psychedelic keyboards and staccato drums.

Adagio was written and recorded over a period of five years with a masterful team of international collaborators, including !!!'s Rafael Cohen and British songwriter Gabriel Stebbing (Christine and The Queens, Loyle Carner and Metronomy).

The album is a half-hour meditation on love and desire, rest and time. The majority of the songs are sung in English, but for the first time in her career, Σtella delivers two eminent songs in Greek, the seductive “Omorfo Mou” and a cover version of Litsa Sakellario’s new wave cult classic “Ta Vimata” from 1969.

When she started writing Adagio, she knew the time had finally come to sing in her native language. She started the album by chance in 2019 during an 11-hour boat trip to the island of Anafi. Σtella had recently been through a period of personal turmoil and needed a break from home – this became the musical foundation for Adagio.

The album comes in the wake of her masterful release Up and Away from 2022. The release catapulted her onto the major international music scene with over three million monthly Spotify listeners and a feature in HBO's critically acclaimed TV series Industry.