Description
Alicia Edelweiss is an Austrian-British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and performer. She lives and works in Vienna. Alicia Edelweiss began her musical career as a vagabond street musician while hitchhiking through Europe for two years. As a musician, she is mainly self-taught. After initially performing mainly with her guitar, she added accordion, ukulele and piano to her list of favourite instruments. In addition to her work as a solo artist, she was also an accordionist in Voodoo Jurgen's band, the 'Ansa Panier', for many years. Their previous release history includes the debut studio album 'When I'm enlightened, everything will be better' (2019), the EP 'I should have been overproduced' from 2013 and the home-recorded lo-fi album 'Mother, how could you - A sick tragic comedy in 10 acts' (2016). The production techniques were expanded for the recordings for 'FURIE': In addition to electronic elements, soundscapes and field recordings also characterise the sound. Nevertheless, the pieces of music have the catchiness typical of pop; depth and openness go hand in hand on the album. This dynamic is achieved primarily through sound, melody, and texture, which serve as deeply layered emotional carriers. FURIE features piano, accordion, drums, and a strong focus on strings, with long-time collaborators Matthias Frey (violin) and Lukas Lauermann (cello), as well as many additional guest musicians. Synthesizers, layered vocals, and field recordings--including samples of animals and nature-- add further depth to the album's sonic landscape. At the heart of FURIE stands Alicia Edelweiss' voice, her most essential instrument and distinctive vehicle of expression. That voice sings, tells stories, sighs, laughs, and transforms seamlessly between different vocal styles. She can deliver a pop song with casual ease, only to shift into something ethereal and otherworldly, as she sings a haunting piece of sacred music. Sonically, FURIE embraces contemporary pop while breaking free from past genre labels. Though Edelweiss' has often been categorized under folk and world music, these elements now serve as subtle accents rather than defining features. Throughout the production of FURIE, the artist listened to a wide range of music and cites, amongst others, The Flaming Lips, Phoebe Bridgers, Big Thief, Titi Robin, Andrew Bird, Grimes, FKA Twigs, Townes Van Zandt, and Daniel Johnston as inspirations. Above all, FURIE is an album in the truest, almost old-fashioned sense of the word: a cohesive, carefully structured whole, comprising eight tracks of equal weight and quality. It is a rare find in today's music landscape, a record that dares to strive for excellence
