Aiko Aiko is an Austrian electronica deep pop duo consisting of Nada Aiko (vocals, synths, electronics) and Pascal Holper (beats, electronics).
Aiko Aiko’s eclectic, cinematic and at times classical approach moves off the beaten path, drawing from diverse stylistic sources. Their music features unconventional song structures and time signatures, unexpected dramaturgic turns, seductive melodies and harmonies, and bold blends of genres and sounds. In vibrant collages of images and scenes, manifold elements are poetically interwoven - contrasting, complementing, and merging into one coherent picture of sound and meaning.
Their album unfolds through sonic landscapes of hypnotic, polyrhythmic pianos, organs and synths reminiscent of Steve Reich or Terry Riley, orgiastic crescendos, dark hymns of artificial choirs mourning lost connectedness, and a cosmic big band parading in psychedelic lightness towards the end of the world.
aiko aiko.
RADICAL NOPINION is their second album. 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 find 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 characterisc and mesmerising voice, which takes on different personas or accumulates into playful choir arrangements.
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”.
Physical.
Excerpts from Radical Opinion