aYia - aYia
Enigmatic Icelandic trio aYia have announced their self-titled debut album on Bedroom Community out on November 16th 2018.
Hailing from Reykjavík, Iceland, aYia is made up of: Ásta Fanney, Kári Einarsson and Kristinn Roach. A haunting debut, the nine track self-titled album is moody yet kinetic, the electronically produced melody dips and rises majestically as the vocals soar into the ether. The album was mixed and mastered by Valgeir Sigurðsson.
Explaining the album, the band say “it is a gathering of different aspects, mostly connected to the extremes of existing. It rattles the idea of fragility, changing the interior of the surroundings...it is a concrete formalization of a poetic gesture, genetically enhanced to become something unfamiliar.”
Likening their sound to a plant grown in a lab with an abnormal environment the band state is their first collection of “experiments designed to interact with human emotion”.
Launching with track ‘Slow’ and accompanying visuals directed by Alexandre Souêtre the video was shot between Iceland and Los Angeles. ‘Slow’ features an idling pace and stillness in visuals, in an attempt to create a calming feeling that parallels the song’s dark and bewitching tones. By showing people, places and moments, sometimes with a slightly “unreal” but familiar element, director Alexandre Souêtre aimed at replicating the subtle confusion and interest in the inexplicable of the world as a simple clash between beauty and omen, perceived with sensitivity, instinct and curiosity, by a child.
A dark horse in the Icelandic scene and with barely any information about the band available online, aYia have still managed to captivate the imagination of many with their abstract electro-pop. Even with little material released, they have already played Roskilde, Eurosonic and The Great Escape, along with Iceland’s major festivals and touring Europe with fellow Icelanders Gus Gus.
Purchase aYia here
Watch the videos of Slow and Sparkle
Directed by: Geoff McAuliffe