AVAWAVES return with brand new single ‘Wild Eyed’, an evocative, minimalist and cinematic interpretation of London Grammar’s 2017 track.
Comprising of the prolific violinist Anna Phoebe and pianist and composer Aisling Brouwer, the maverick, creative powerhouse that was previously known as AVA, has evolved into AVAWAVES- by merging AVA with the name of their debut album; ‘WAVES’which was released on One Little Indian last summer.
In the midst of the 2020 global lockdown, AVAWAVES’ creativity powers on with the stunning release of ‘Wild Eyed’ which they first performed live for BBC Introducing Kent and later on stage. ‘Wild Eyed’ follows the release of album track ‘Mulholland’, a string of UK dates supportingErland Cooperand a sellout show at London’s Moth Club at the end of last year.
Aisling Brouwer explains how ‘Wild Eyed’ came about “We are both huge fans of London Grammar, and Hannah Reid’s voice and this is one of those songs that touches your soul from the inside out. Anna has a gift for mirroring these kinds of inflections, so we initially did it as an experiment for live radio, but then enjoyed performing it so much that we expanded it into a proper release and incorporated it into our live set. The track is by nature already quite cinematic, but for the recording we also really wanted to have live drums and Francesco Lucidi really brought the track to life with his drum part. It’s a cinematic re-interpretation of an epic track.”
Anna and Aisling have come together to create a stunningly fresh sound that has captured the imagination of both their manager Nitin Sawhney and iconic label One Little Indian (home of Bjork, Poppy Ackroyd, Tusks). The duo combines a unique and potent blend of cinematic soundscapes, evocative and immersive electronic journeys of the heart and mind, at times urgent and bewitching. AVAWAVES is the coming together of two compelling performers.
Anna Phoebe and Aisling Brouwer are based in the UK and Berlin respectively and compose, produce, record and mix their music and are the creative engine behind AVAWAVES. Most recently, AVAWAVES composed for the fashion brand Zegna’s SS 2020 campaign #WhatMakesAMan featuring Hollywood actor Mahershala Ali. The duo are now using the lockdown to expand their creativity, plan a new 2020 live tour and write their second album.
Anna Phoebe said “I’ve always toured and played live shows, so it certainly feels very different to be confined to working on your own in the studio. I’m enjoying this time of intense focus, and feel grateful that we work in an industry where you can actually work remotely – It’s been a time of artists and composers reaching out to one another and really cementing a feeling of community. Aisling and I had a week together in January writing tracks for our next AVAWAVES album, which has given us a strong basis to now work remotely together. It feels great to take that experience and put it all into our second album. I’m already excited to play these new tracks live once this is all over! When we play that’s when AVAWAVES becomes alive – it’s like a separate entity which is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Aisling Brouwer said “Apart fromnot traveling and performing, not much has changed in the lockdown, as whenever I am home in Berlin I would spend all day every day in the studio working on various projects, as I do now. Being in isolation definitely disturbs the equilibrium of creativity because the gravity of the situation is very evident and sometimes completely overwhelming. We hope to announce our UK tour dates in the coming months and we’re currently working hard on our second album. A lot has happened since the first album, and it’s changed and shaped the way we write and perform together – I am genuinely stoked for the next phase of our collaboration. We both write and compose music for visuals, film, dance and multimedia, so when we get together it’s an organic thing for the music to naturally take a cinematic turn.”
Anna Phoebe is an accomplished and acclaimed violinist and composer on cross-genre collaborative projects, including poetry, dance, film, TV, art and science. She has also played around the world with names as diverse as Roxy Music, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Royal Ballet School. Aisling Brouwer is an ambient classical composer, producer and pianist who specialises in writing music for visuals, with an extensive background in music for film and TV. Aisling scored the film ‘White Riot’ which won The Grierson Award for Best Documentary at BFI London Film Festival 2019.
