aiko aiko.
Aiko Aiko are Nada Aiko (vocals, synths, electronics) and Pascal Holper (beats, electronics)
RADICAL NOPINION is the second album by Austrian electronica deep pop duo Aiko Aiko. A sonic portrait that reflects the zeitgeist and its current developments with songs drenched in melancholia, always permeated by an uplifting, rebellious hopefulness, driving inspiration and desires pushing and pulling towards an inner and outer utopia.
In the title and concept of Aiko Aiko’s album, NOPINION stands as the opposite of deadlocked opinions caught in dualities and ideolo(r)gies, ignorance and fossilized structures, prejudice and dogmatism. It is a radical invitation to be open-hearted, open for new experiences, and at the same time to remain independent – to fnd one’s own answers, live one’s true self, a subject also touched upon in the album’s single “Al Lat”.
Along these lines, and without any limitations regarding their compositions, the duo created an album rich in diversity, ranging from epic, dense and beat driven songs to minimal ambient piano and string pieces. All orbiting around a dark electronic core and Nada Aiko’s characteristic and mesmerising voice, which takes on different personas or accumulates into playful choir arrangements.
Aiko Aiko’s eclectic, cineastic and at times classical compositional approach, offbeat the trodden musical paths, draws upon various stilistic sources, and features unconventional song structures and time signatures, unexpected dramaturgic turns, seductive melodies and harmonies, various sources of sounds as well as combinations of different genres and styles. In distinct collages of colourful images and scenes, manifold elements are poetically interwoven, contrasting and complementing each other - coalescing in one big picture of sound and meaning.
The many facets of Aiko Aiko’s album lead through sonic sceneries of electrifying hypnotic waves of polyrhythmic pianos, organs and synths reminiscent of the minimal music of Steve Reich or Terry Riley, orgiastic crescendos, a gloomy hymn sung by a pandimensional dark gospel choir of artifcial voices mourning the death of primordial (inter)connectedness, a farewell to a system in decline, and a parade where a cosmic big band is celebrating in lighthearted psychedelic craziness while sailing towards the end of the world.
For this album, the duo has been inviting various musicians, who grace Aiko Aiko’s music with their unique style of playing and improvising, such as US musician and activist Anomie Belle (violin), experimental jazz and Klezmer violinist Daniel Weltlinger, flm score composer and clarinetist Matija Strniša, Aaron Thier on additional drums as well as cellist and composer Lukas Lauermann, who arranged a cello version of the single “Al Lat”.