London based Polish artist Aga Ujma appeared on our radar last month with the mesmerising “In The Ocean”, and today she follows it up with news of her debut EP, Songs of Innocence and Experience, which will arrive on May 13 via Slow Dance. She’s also shared a new song from it called “Night”, saying:
“The song is inspired by Pauline Oliveiros’ Sonic Meditations – a set of beautiful listening exercises that I discovered in my library at uni and that I would recommend everyone to try. Number 5 meditations instructions are as follows: “Take a walk at night. Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears”
“I did it one night and wrote a poem afterwards which became the lyrics to the song. Then I started going for walks at night by myself a lot. I really loved my first neighbourhood in London. I would walk, dance by myself on the street, imagine I am dancing on the rooftops and on the top of cars and phone booths. There is this beautiful sports centre where me and my housemates would sneak into and roam around when coming home from a night out, it is such a breathtaking space when no one else is around, and I really wanted to include it in the video.”
Although “Night” is a much more terrestrial track than “In The Ocean”, it’s no less mystical. This is in no small part thanks to Aga’s fairylike vocals, which are multiple and skip playfully around the song, perfectly bouncing off the tones of her signature gendèr. With these luminous elements all in a constantly shifting mosaic, we can perfectly picture her sidling along lonely streets at night, dancing alongside lights that reflect from windows, making metaphysical contact with far-off oceans and rivers. It’s a small but vivid world, and when she sings “the night was an endless sound”, we can both hear and see the aural vision she’s experiencing.
The video for “Night” takes us into Aga’s night frolics in an even more literal way. Check it out below or listen on streaming platforms.
Aga Ujma’s Songs of Innocence and Experience EP arrives on May 13 via Slow Dance (pre-order on Bandcamp). You can follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
