AnnaOtta
ARTIST:
AnnaOtta feat. Lucía Fumero
TITLE:
Such is Life
GENRE:
Experimental Electronic / Dream Pop / Ambient
RELEASE DATE:
16th June 2023
RELEASE FORMAT:
Digital and Cassette
CREDITS:
Synths by Lucia Fumero.
Vocals, live sampling, vocal synths by Jenny Thiele, Irene Novoa.
Mixing and production by Christian Hostert.
Mastering by Jannis Bentler
Artwork by Candela Sierra.
“In this world, it is not similarities or regularities that take us a step forward, but blunt opposites. And all the opposites in the universe are present within each and every one of us.”
“But of course one should never ever remain silent for fear of complexity!” (Elif Shafak)
AnnaOtta’s third release „Such is life” features piano player Lucia Fumero, the duo’s collaborator and friend for many years. This sonic trip reflects on the melancholy, absurdity and humour of their mutual experience of living abroad in the Netherlands while entering their adulthood. Three millennial expats challenging their identities not to conform to clichées and expectations.
All the sounds originate from live processed vocals and one synthesiser, giving “Such is life” the same peculiar mixture of electronic and biotic textures as its predecessors “What if” and “This wasn’t real”.
The album's mood alternates strong and expressive songs with the search of a delicate balance between darkness and charm. Its slow tempos and gloomy melodies, influenced by the 90s trip hop music that they grew up with, are constantly shaken by the rough and experimental approach of AnnaOtta. The lyrics are inspired by the words of the Turkish-European writer Elif Shafak.
The songs were recorded in one take and on three tracks, in an improvised session in Barcelona, January 2019. They were afterwards edited by AnnaOtta and produced by Christian Hostert.
Press about AnnaOtta
Lagartija Nick, from Vinyl Keks, Das Independent-Musikmagazin (DE)
" [...] This requires listeners who are open to the experimental, who can open up and understand the duo's fun in the creation of the new foreign. Anyone who likes or can do that will get a colourful, multi-faceted album that is really exciting and intellectually demanding in every respect.”
Julian Callejo, spanish music critic
“…it is coherent, quite colourful, slow and disconcerting. Here the listener is not in charge, who in the best of cases can decide to relax and let go of the handles [...] It's very comforting, as silly as it is to find labels, to recognize the sound of Fever Ray at a certain point.”
Bio
"Control is an illusion. Embrace serendipity and treasure the mistakes for they will save us from a boring existence”
AnnaOtta is a European musical duo of electronic, improvised music formed in 2018 by singers Irene Novoa (ESP) and Jenny Thiele (DE).
The music is composed exclusively of their voices which they manipulate electronically. Novoa and Thiele work with loops, live sampling and effects, mixed with sample based synths built up from their voices and songs. This vocal alchemy gives AnnaOtta's soundscapes and harmonies a distinctive and memorable sound.
They seek to challenge gender stereotypes and to contribute to a different vision of beauty and femininity by promoting errors and using technology to produce extreme and risky sounds. This attitude is reflected in both their music and visuals.
AnnaOtta creates music on the edge, improvising the songs and lyrics by following their own graphic scores of non-traditional music notation.
They also play with free association of words, inventing languages, which in combination with their succulent sound textures and polyrhythms results in a delicate and impulsive music.
To the audience AnnaOtta transmits the excitement and tension of the surprises and risks to which the two musicians expose themselves while playing.
Jenny Thiele (*1987, Dresden) is a singer, musician and performer from Cologne, Germany.
She’s a freelancing artist who plays her own original music, composing and performing for dance theatre productions. Her musical focus lies on experimental and alternative Pop music and is often related to as an expressive, theatrical style.
Irene Novoa (*1986, Madrid) is a singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist from Madrid, Spain.
She records and performs vocals, percussion, synths, keyboards and electric bass for other artists as well as in her own productions. She composes and records music for radio, podcasts and audiovisual media and currently accompanies the spanish musician Christina Rosenvinge on her artistic ventures.
Lucia Fumero (*1991, Barcelona) is a pianist, singer and composer from Barcelona, Spain.
She has her own projects where she plays and sings her own compositions. She has released an album called Universo Normal, and will shortly release a new EP. She also performs with different bands with a big variety of styles, as jazz, electronics, salsa and others.