WILD ANIMA PRESENTS ALKHEMY
WILD ANIMA PRESENTS HER NEW ALBUM ALKHEMY
I am truly feeling so lucky and grateful to be working on so many wonderful interviews with creatives all over the world particularly as so many of these talents focus on cross cultural dialogue and diversity. Despite what feels like end of days, each of these features inspire me and are a reassurance that times are indeed changing but that collectively we can move forward in a more positive way and with optimism. Today I interview Wild Anima, her album Alkhemy is out next week June 19th on Sacred Sea records. Her music explores a wide array of experimental vernaculars to create a very sensual, visceral avant/art- sound.
Tell us about yourself
Wild Anima is a project that came to life in 2016 when i had returned to my hometown in Paris after a 7 year period of staying in the UK mainly in Bristol. I always like to describe it as being the wild soul, the raw state of nature sleeping inside all of us. The intimate part of our living essence. It relates to Carl Jung’s concept of the Anima, the creative feminine part in men. Which i think also relates to the divine feminine as a whole.
My journey with music has been almost like an odyssey. It was always like a secret garden to me, i always felt very shy about it, until the drive to express it and create it became stronger than anything else and it’s almost like i had no choice but to pursue that route. Following that road truly feels like a spiritual journey. Through music i feel that i have been able to develop a path towards self discovery and healing. This has allowed a greater connection with others and the world, in a deep way.
Highlights so far?
Performing at Berlin’s HAU2 theatre as part of CTM’s Musicmakers Hacklab. It is such an iconic venue to play to and is truly an interesting festival to be taking part.
One of my first ever concerts as Wild Anima was at London’s legendary Cafe Oto for my first cassette release on Blue Tapes which was a very special event.
My favourite was to be doing an artist residency in Iceland at the Fish factory creative centre, it was a life changing experience.
Greatest inspirations and influences?
My parents are both Greek so i feel that a lot of my singing is influenced by the byzantine chanting and also maybe by gregorian choirs. I feel very influenced by the anatolian harmonies in general.
I was lucky to learn the Mbira music of Zimbabwe during 3 years with Chartwell Dutiro an Mbria master who has now passed away. This is a major influence on the way i use vocal live looping and the counterpoints in polyrhythms. To me this music is the prehistoric techno, it is so complex and fascinating. Although it is made of simple loops played on the mbira thumb piano each of those loops contain very specific patterns in them which when played in a whole mbira orchestra unveil hundreds of other patterns interacting with each other. It is like a sonic kaleidoscope.
On the electronic side i am deeply influenced by the early 2000’s british experimental music, especially the warp records sound, with projects such as Plaid, Autechre or Aphex Twin.
My biggest inspiration though lies in nature ,it’s aura and magnificence. The Ocean and the element of water, the night and its mystery, spirituality. I am also very inspired by Tibet and cultures from the circumpolar region. There is something special about cultures that developed in such harsh environments.
Tell us about the creation of ALKHEMY?
ALKHEMY is an album that is part of a bigger project that I developed in Iceland during an artist residency focused around the concept of the “ecology of emotions”. It initially emerged from a profound realisation that i experienced through personal relationships and also through my spiritual connection with nature.
I have spelled it with a “k” to differentiate it from the common alchemy. It is an expression of the healing exchange that can be created between performer and audience, between two individuals or in a wider sense between the human heart and the planet Earth.
The whole concept is inspired by a book by Stephen Harrod Buhner “The secret teachings of plants: the intelligence of the heart through the direct perception of nature”. This book talks about how the human heart is an organ capable of emitting an electromagnetic field like an oscillator, and this field is what connects us to the greater field, which is emitted by the Earth. This allows us to process the various data we are in contact with and communicate with our environment, it is like a 6th sense.
During my stay in Iceland I met Julia who is the author of the artwork and it was like meeting a soul sister. We realized we were both working around very similar topics during the residency, focusing on the Earth and the love and care we feel for it. She actually did the piece totally independently but as things unfolded it became very natural to blend our works together and the artwork felt like it was made for the music.
The ecology of emotions is a term that emerged from a conversation with a friend and collaborator, Alisha Erao aka Lush Agave. Exchanging ideas on the concept with her and hearing her perspective allowed me to come up with a name to what i had been investigating on the human psyche and complex patterns in relationships. Just like we are able to recycle physical material, i have observed that it is also possible to apply this process with our emotions.
tell us how you feel the current world situation is affecting the world for creatives and talent, and how do you see things moving forward?
It is such a deep question and i feel that it has many dimensions to it. I had a look a the interviews on the website and actually found your article with your inspiring collages and its quote “physically distant socially closer”. I really loved that and felt it was truly relevant. There is a strange paradox happening where a lot of what we knew before the covid situation emerged globally has been totally collapsing and was very challenging to deal with at first. Especially in the independent music community many of us were literally living from touring and playing shows, we had no back up.
It was very heartbreaking at first and feelings of despair started to emerge. But as things developed other solutions and new models started appearing. I’m not sure if this actually has direct effective solutions for now but it feels like there is an opportunity to build everything from scratch again. In a way that we are able to create our own new rules in a more fair and balanced way. On a personal level the pandemic and global lockdown has allowed me to see what was no longer working and sustainable so that i could move forward in finding new ways of considering my ways of working in a more empowered dynamic.
I think the future is there for us to create from now on, the best way to go through this is probably uniting our energy and strength to find balance in our lives through bringing more awareness on our basic opportunities to live more sustainably financially as well as emotionally as a human collective in tune with our environment and the natural cycles.
Anything else you would like to share with us about your music or thoughts?
i would love to invite people to follow their dreams now more than ever, it is one of the ways we can be pro-active in bringing a change into the world today. This is actually something that we are building with Julia as part of her eco-community school project called Sydenkoulu: the place of becomings.
Favorite websites or social media handles?
I would really recommend going to visit Stephen Buhner’s project the Gaian studies website, His research on plant medicine is very interesting especially regarding curing Lyme disease and also the covid19, he has just released an article on ways we could be treating the symptoms with plants.
https://gaianstudies.org/HeartMath, a very rich resource to learn about applying heart coherence in our daily life and learning more about the effects that applies on the environment through understanding electro-magnetic fields:
https://www.heartmath.com/Here is the link that i’d like to also share from our eco project Sydenkoulu where you can find inspiring ressources:
https://sydenkoulu.com/resourcesRecently i discovered this amazing website called “Book of floating pages” merging the art of tarot and shamanism. There is an experience created by Jacques Theron that i’d really recommend it is called the “22 day manifestation process with tarot”, i found it a lovely way to learn about the cards better and have it as a daily support to go through my life at the moment.
https://www.floatingpages.com/courses/22-day-manifestation-process/An instagram account and activist i appreciate alot is the Berlin based organisation Aequa. i attended a talk by the founder Sarajoy at the DICE festival, which is featuring international queer POC artists last autumn and felt really inspired by her way of rethinking social interactions and emotional sustainability:
@aequa
https://www.instagram.com/_aequa_/I am obsessed with sacred geometry and mathematics,
https://www.instagram.com/jain108academy/