There is a particular kind of courage in beginning quietly. On her debut EP Message to Myself, Tel Aviv-based songwriter and multidisciplinary artist Eliya Grace does not arrive with a grand declaration. Instead, she opens a private notebook and lets three songs carry the weight of years spent growing, healing and learning how to listen inwardly.
The official video for Wonderland gives that inner movement a visual doorway. Rather than treating the song as a detachable single, the release positions it as the opening chapter of a compact three-track work. Its 4:33 running time leaves space for the song’s folk sensitivity and alternative-rock shading to breathe, while Eliya Grace‘s vocal presence keeps the emotional focus close and human.
Listen / stream:
Wonder is often sold as escape. Here, it feels more like a practice: a conscious return to curiosity after the pressure of experience has made the world feel smaller. That distinction matters. Wonderland introduces an artist whose writing is concerned less with spectacle than with the difficult process of becoming receptive again – to nature, silence, memory and the possibility of connection.
The wider EP deepens that idea. Life’s Melody brings violin into the instrumental palette, with Shawn Law Yone Gilad joining the guitars of Or Gurfinkel and the cello of Romi Kopelman. The arrangement expands without overwhelming the songs. Organic strings and carefully handled production give the material dimension, but the storytelling remains the centre of gravity.
By the time Feathers Shoulders closes the record, Message to Myself has revealed its real scale. These are not three isolated exercises in confessional songwriting, but letters written across different emotional seasons. Fragility and strength are not presented as opposites; they coexist, and the music becomes the place where that contradiction can be held without being resolved too neatly.
Buy on Bandcamp
Grace has been writing since the age of sixteen, and that long relationship with songwriting can be felt in the absence of unnecessary drama. Her debut is intimate without collapsing into self-absorption, spiritual without becoming vague, and hopeful without pretending that transformation is painless. Production and sound engineering by Or Gurfinkel and Ronen Sabo favour clarity and warmth, while ADi ROTEM‘s mastering preserves the EP’s close, tactile character.
With the release of the Wonderland video, Eliya Grace offers more than an introduction to a new artist. She establishes a world in which songs function as reminders: to carry less, to remain open and to recognise that vulnerability can be a form of strength. Message to Myself may have been written inwardly, but its most affecting moments are the ones that leave room for the listener to answer back.
Watch Wonderland:
