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Ambient duo AVA share new single ‘Resistance’ – Debut album Waves to be released via One Little Indian July 12th

June 7, 2019

Ambient duo AVA share new single and video ‘Resistance’ – a call for a divided country to unite

Debut album Waves to be released via One Little Indian July 12th

AVA is Anna Phoebe (Jorja Smith, Erland Cooper) and Aisling Brouwer – a duo who create ambient soundscapes based on intricate interplay between violin and piano. Both are professional composers in their own right; Aisling for film and TV and Anna for multi-platinum selling bands and artists, but it is through AVA that the pair carve out their own musical identity in collaboration with each other.


They are set to release their debut album Waves on One Little Indian Records (Poppy Ackroyd, Manu Delago, Roger Goula, Gabriel Olafs, Amiina, Björk), on July 12th – a deeply personal record, written for those looking to find solace in a world full of unrest. As British residents born and raised in mainland Europe, the musicians started writing Waves with the Brexit referendum on the horizon. In the wake of the vote, the music became a search for common identity against a backdrop of uncertainty, expressed through their emotionally driven post-classical music.


New single from the album, ‘Resistance’ is about turning desperation into determination, persistence and resilience. “The string swells almost sound like cries for help. It’s about letting all these feelings boil up inside of you and using this to build your strength. It’s not so much about asking questions as it is about insisting on answers” said Aisling Brouwer. Violinist Anna Phoebe adds; “Yes this piece for me is about the outside turmoil – when everything is dragging you down and it’s muggy and you’re trying to pull yourself up out of it. When I hear Ash’s piano line come in around 2.40, for me that’s such a stroke of positivity shining through and is a reminder to keep going and to fight through.”


Coming from mixed European backgrounds (Anna Phoebe is German/Greek/Irish and Aisling Brouwer is Dutch/Irish) and having each grown up moving around multiple countries, the pair respectively made Britain their home, meeting for the first time and writing together in 2015. “When Aisling and I started writing together, it was against this background of social and political turmoil – we were both trying to understand our identities within a country where we had built our lives” explains Anna Phoebe.


“The sessions we had together were an escape from all the noise. We would take breaks from writing and walk onto the beach, looking across the water at the outline of the French coast…discussing what it was to be European in a country where people had voted to reject Europe. All those mixed up emotions found their way into the music, exploring the complex layers of identity we all have — the layers of who we are and where we fit in.”
 

No strangers to a constantly changing surrounding environment, their relationship to the violin and piano-based pieces they composed together became one of emotional catharsis. Through AVA, they found their musical counterpart and individuality. 
 

Aisling surmises; “I moved to Berlin at the end of 2017, after nearly a decade in the UK, living in Brighton, Bristol and London. I had studied there and made it my home. As someone who has always identified more as a European than with any one country, I was shocked by the Brexit vote. When I would go down to see Anna in Kent, we would often discuss it and the ways in which the world was changing. Then we would go into the studio to write, and escape into this musical world of ours where nothing else existed.”


AVA look for beauty amongst the madness, for a corner of comfort in an insecure world. “This music was an emotional oasis for us, to explore everything we felt away from all the noise.” 

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1 Comment

  • Reply Paul - UK December 3, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    AVA “Then we would go into the studio to write, and escape into this musical world of ours where nothing else existed.”

    My Answer: Your music is so sweet, thought and provocatively emotive that nothing else matters. Lost in your world of ever changing experiences my heart finds a temporary home reflected in your work, and for that I Thank you. Don’t Stop Please, Keep on – where ever you might be x

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