Having just listened to the debut offering from emerging, alternative music artiste Au/Ra we’ve just come-over all goosebumpy and taken aback. Largely because there are certain little trembles and nuances in this piece which lie in a hybrid like framework as produced by Swedish singer/songwriter Noonie Bao and consequently that of Autoheart’s Jody Gadsden.
From that you might gather it’s an interesting place to be coming from. If likeminded of our tastes in music at least, or rendered utterly clueless if you haven’t heard of either of those artists before.
Nonetheless when you learn that Au/Ra was born in Ibiza and consequently raised in Antigua, even the more so this alternative steeped sound formulation is NOT the kind of music you’d expect to associate with a Spaniard living in the West Indies.
Whilst, it is that Spain can lay claim to nurturing some of the most widely recognized and renowned contributors of the surrealist art movement, it’s not so often that we’ve found it breathing life in modern song form from out of the country or even by way of the tiniest of associations such as this.
Anyway, Au/Ra injects surreal references into the lyrics of her debut single “Concrete Jungle” like she’s so learned and cultured. Kinda think she really is!
Love the concept of what Au/Ra is doing here. Here we go namedropping again, but it so strikes us as having a quality of RebekkaMaria quaintness about it, in ways. It only goes to add weight that in general, we feel new artists need to exercise more imagination and creative artistry in their music making right now. Our introduction to Au/Ra has come as the respite that’s saved us from drowning in mainstream formulated pop. When such a diaphonously exquisite song as this is brought to our notice, we cling on with hopeful delight.