Beatrice Deer and the stunning folkloric shoegaze rock vastness of "Aukkauti"

photo by Alexi Hobbs // "ᐅᖃᐅᓯᐅᑉ ᐁᑉᐹᓄᓕᕐᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᔪᑦ / It was a beautiful day without wind / Gorgeous blue skies when they went hunting for fowl / It’s what they do, nothing out of the ordinary / Aukkauti’s brand new rifle accidently goes off / He’s stunned and he sees his hunting partner / That he’s killed him by a grave mistake..."

The stunning folkloric shoegaze rock vastness of "Aukkauti" by acclaimed Inuk-Mohawk “Inuindie” singer-songwriter Beatrice Deer with her band (Beatrice Deer Band), captures you with it's haunting gaze, big indie rock chords that hang in the air and Deer's beautiful vocal countenance. It is the third glimpse at Deer's eighth full length album "Inuit Legend" due to drop on April 3rd (2026). Within the dreamy propulsive constructions I can't but help feel a lot of things, specifically the ghosts of 80's UK new wave / post punk bands like Tears for Fears and Echo & the Bunnymen and the vastness of neofolk or "Gothic Americana" leans like The Keening or Angles of Light or Jarboe although Beatrice Deer's sound (here) to me doesn't run so darkly drawn even though the folklore behind "Aukkauti" is certainly tragically complex. 

LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):

[ ...the near-operatic, shoegaze-leaning stunner tells the story of Aukkauti, a gentle man who accidentally shot and killed his friend Kumainnaq’s son during a hunting expedition. This set off a brutal cycle of revenge and grief-fueled rage, forcing nearby Inuit to flee the area. Years later, when Aukkauti was found, elders upheld the traditional law and had him sentenced to death for his actions.

Deer says, "'Aukkauti' is my favourite song on the album. Although the subject of the song is very tragic, making the song was such a great artistic experience for me. I had fun exploring my vocal abilities with our producer Mark 'Bucky' Wheaton."]

However you describe "Aukkauti", in terms of it's genre blending, it is a stirring piece of sonic art that transports you. I am dazzled by the dark underpinnings but the sonic ascensions and chorus sung in English and coated in a patina of uplifting indie rock sweeps that also has a sort of pop prowess as it veers in to adult contemporary pop (to me). In this way, "Aukkauti", informs us but asks us to dance some too, and there is nothing wrong with that. 

LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):

[Inuit Legend is a portal to a wildly enchanted world largely unknown to those outside its borders. Beatrice Deer reimagines a number of fables and real-life tales passed down from her ancestors, interpreting each phantasmic piece of folklore through a decidedly modern lens. The album brings a bold new vitality to its age-old stories, ultimately transmitting their transcendent wisdom to an audience that spans beyond boundaries of any kind.]

-Robb Donker Curtius

The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3YEhsztAtjqpC0JikHMmYe

https://www.instagram.com/dear_beatrice

https://www.facebook.com/BeatriceDeer/

https://www.beatricedeerband.com/

https://beatricedeer.bandcamp.com/album/inuit-legend

https://linktr.ee/beatricedeerband

Beatrice Deer is an award-winning Inuit singer-songwriter based in Montreal. Half-Inuk and half-Mohawk, Beatrice was born and raised in Nunavik, Quebec, in the small village of Quaqtaq. Her award-winning songs are crafted upon deeply personal lyrics and blend indie rock and modern folk with traditional Inuit stories and throat singing.

Her new project Inuit Legend is a portal to a wildly enchanted world largely unknown to those outside its borders. Throughout the spellbinding suite of songs, Deer reimagines a number of fables and real-life tales passed down from her ancestors, interpreting each phantasmic piece of folklore through a decidedly modern lens.

With its deliberate focus on stories of feminine power, the album makes for a thrilling document of transformation and survival – a narrative closely aligned with Deer’s own journey in struggling against the extraordinary hardship endemic to her homeland of Nunavik (a historically disenfranchised region deep in the Canadian Arctic). When met with her raw yet extravagant take on indie-rock, Inuit Legend brings a bold new vitality to its age-old stories, ultimately transmitting their transcendent wisdom to an audience that spans beyond boundaries of any kind.

Deer’s illustrious career is marked by a string of remarkable achievements and accolades in the arts community. Her achievements include winning the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Award, the 2019 Indigenous Music Award for Best Folk Album and the 2020 Canadian Screen Award for her co-composed score for Giant Bear. In 2021 she was awarded the Prism Prize and named an Apple Ambassador, and appeared as a finalist on Quebec's Talents Bleus. Her film score for Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice earned multiple honors including IMDB Short Cuts’ Best Canadian Film at TIFF and a shortlisting for an Oscar nomination. Her 2021 single "UQAUTINNGA" reached No. 1, and in 2022, she was invited to sing for the Pope during his visit to Canada. Deer was named Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Award Inuit Artist of the Year in 2023 and received the King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2024.

A beloved figure in Arctic Canada, Deer has performed worldwide, at the Venice Biennale, Norway’s Førde Traditional and World Music Festival, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. She was named Woman of the Year by The Montreal Council of Women in 2023 and was commissioned to tailor an outfit for Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, for the coronation of King Charles III.










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