Ayka

Hey Punk!

Baya

Loon

Tuna Tune

Sassy 009

Lara

Pen Gutt

sykle uten hender

Give Me That Dive

Tokyo Garden

Cobalt Moment

Maybe in the Summer

Ayka is the pseudonym of Norwegian-Turkish Ayca Lingaas. In 2021 she released her debut EP, “I’ll Show Myself Out Now”, through LUFT Recordings, and she has loads of new material scheduled to see the light of day by the end of 2022. She already mesmerized audiences from Norwegian stages like By:Larm, Henie Onstad Art Center, and USF Verftet in Bergen. Ayka’s lyrics reflects upon the ups and downs of life, in all their banal and grave forms. She conveys these themes through a contrastive sonic landscape ranging aesthetically from soft to rough, dipping into both electronic pop- and traditional folk-music. Ayka could, for the sake of confusion, be compared with the likes of Connan Mockasin and Lilly Allen. Laughter and tears are welcome!

Music has always been a part of the Turkish-Norwegian artist's life. Born Ayça Lingaas in Liverpool, UK, where her mother was studying at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and her father was a musician, she was surrounded by creative people from her very first moments. The family moved to Germany when Ayka was still tiny, before relocating again to Norway when she was around 4. Her parents (including her stepfather, who her mother met in Norway) were studying as she grew up, and so the family moved often – as much as once a year, until Ayka was 12.

"It felt adventurous, moving around and meeting new people," Ayka reflects. "I think the longest I've lived somewhere, still, is about a year." Among the moves, her constant was music: her mother would blast Madonna and Sting, while her stepdad was a punk who introduced her to the Sex Pistols. He would bring her to his home studio when she was as young as 6, where they'd make recordings of her singing and playing her acoustic guitar. At around 10, she started taking an interest in GarageBand, teaching herself how to make simple loops, inspired by her love of Gorillaz and Amy Winehouse. By the time she was a teenager, she'd discovered Soundcloud R&B – predominantly her lo-fi hero Abra – and was taking the production more seriously.

She was uploading covers of Abra and Kali Uchis to Soundcloud when her now-label manager reached out, and expressed an interest in her delicate-yet-tough voice. She agreed to record a few songs, with no intention of it really going anywhere. "I was always satisfied with it being a hobby," she laughs. "Or maybe I'm just lazy." But those sessions revealed a bright, bold new songwriting voice, full of immediacy and a playful sense of the surreal.

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 as "a tiny record marking my coming of age as a musician". It's both a small, tongue-in-cheek statement and a huge one; in that way, it mirrors her songwriting, where seismic and serious details are woven into grunge-pop melodies that feel light and breezy. Like any good coming-of-age story, 

is filled with angst, joy, romance, and of course, anthemic choruses. "It's a conscious first step into the sonic world of adulthood," says Ayka, never far from laughter. "Yeah, I’d like to try making music, like, 

Eleven

Fifteen Minute Lover

Iallefall

Ingin' Ways

Single

With Ayka, nothing is quite what it seems on the surface. On the confident "Fifteen Minute Lover", she drizzles a delicate, sensual R&B melody over melancholic chords, and creates an ocean of space in her production. "It's clearly a song with sexual innuendos, and it’s easy writing it off as a ballad of seduction – but it’s more about the loss of a friend than a lover," she explains. "I guess you could picture me rolling around in velvet, but I'm doing so in a very desperate and sad manner."

The dreamy ‘Cobalt Moment’ is the second offering from Ayka’s ‘Eleven’ EP following the equally blissed-out opening single ‘lallefall’. On the latest release, she sings frankly about battling depression, 

"I’ve had my fair share of blue happenings and it can be very physically exhausting," 

. "Suddenly grocery shopping and dental hygiene becomes more of a drag than usual. You gotta make it kinda fun when you musicalize these moments – otherwise it’s too depressing and people can’t listen to it as much. To deal with the seriousness of life, you ought to take it not as seriously."

 The song is characteristically Ayka: a beachy guitar-pop song that wouldn't sound out of place on a long summer afternoon, even as the chorus is crying out for relief from sadness.

For her second EP, Ayka spent time at a farmhouse just outside of Oslo, going into a cocoon where she could evolve and finetune the songs even further beyond those first intuitive sparks. This time, the majority of the songs were written at the beginning of a new relationship – when she met her current boyfriend, she immediately wrote a bunch of songs – while others deal with depression and insecurity. She describes it as "much more personal" than her 2021 debut, as well as having a richer sound owing to being co-produced in a studio. Adding to that personal feeling is the fact that the record includes her first ever song written in Norwegian, "lallefall". "I've always been hesitant to write in Norwegian," she admits, "because it's more intimate writing in your own language. It's like being naked. Though, it didn’t take more than a little jazz tobacco and downtime till I found myself enclosed in the Norwegian woods writing Norwegian riddles." The resulting song, with its layered vocals and washes of guitar, feels as blissed-out as a stoned day of watching the sun peek through the trees.

"It’s difficult to pinpoint any specific inspiration to this project. The oldest song is about four years old and the newest only a few months. Most of them were written around love, but I wouldn’t say that this EP is an ode to it. At least not to me. It’s about the music itself and me putting it out there. Also with the help of others. To be cliché, it has been and still is a journey. I’ve always surrounded myself with music, within very private spaces, never truly intending having it somewhere else. Still, I’ve always shared it - with family and friends and a few strangers online. So there’s probably been an underlying intention or lust for exposing it and receiving some sort of acknowledgment. Writing music feels selfish and trying to profit off it even more so. Literally, what’s the use? This question is most possibly shaped by my own insecurities around whether or not I can call myself a “true” musician. 

. But trying “to do this” makes me feel excited and inspired - and I hope that people exposed to this project will enjoy it equally as much - or even more if possible."

It was when dropping out of a “liberal but fully capitalistic millennial pastel palette media-degree”, that Ayka shifted her focus towards music. The Norwegian songwriter had till then been in a handful of various creative projects - dabbling with sound, art and text. Despite this, the local and “laissez-faire” art school wasn’t a fit either, and it was inevitable something had to change. I’ll Show Myself Out Now isn’t just her debut EP; it represents a document of the artist re-focusing how and what she wants to create and communicate.


I'll Show Myself Out Now

C.W.G.B

Window Gazer

Eleventh Ode

Oslo, Norway's Sassy 009 makes abstract electro-pop that edges toward house, techno, and industrial, mixing dreamy synth textures with distorted, propulsive beats. Once a trio, Sassy 009 became the solo project of founder Sunniva Lindgaard in 2019, when second EP Kill Sassy 009 was released. Further releases like 2021's Heart Ego flirted with drum'n'bass and synthwave.

The daughter of classically trained musicians, Lindgaard picked Sassy 009 as a SoundCloud username before she started making music herself. She formed Sassy 009 in early 2017 with former classmate Teodora Geoegijevic and mutual friend Johanna Orellana, and the trio started making left-field dance-pop songs filled with layered vocals and lush flute arrangements. Debut EP Do You Mind was released by Luft Recordings at the end of the year. Sassy 009 unexpectedly slimmed down to just Lindgård in 2019. She recorded Kill Sassy 009 at Luft Studios with the help of co-producer BAYA (Andrew Murray), and the EP was issued that November. Sassy 009 also collaborated with Clairo on the single "Lara," a tune about a crush on iconic video game character Lara Croft. Several singles, including "Blue Racecar" and "Mystery Boy," led up to the release of the 2021 mixtape Heart Ego.

Blue Racecar

Mixtape

 is the most ambitious project I’ve done so far in my career, yet the project I have had the most trouble defining. Framing it as a mixtape was like finding home. The actual structuring and understanding of my compositions is simply a result of how I think it should feel, and not necessarily in line with a structure someone else completely understands.”

, explains Sunniva Lindgård aka Sassy 009 on her mixtape.

The bulk of the release was written throughout the winter of 2019 into 2020 in Lindgård’s mum’s apartment, before being re-recorded and produced in 

, discarding a lot of the original ideas and whittling it down to the hazy-yet-taut pop that remains.

“Ultimately with this I want to prove that I am a better musician today than yesterday” 

. “And feel that the risk of spending tremendous amounts of hours in my bedroom was worth it. I think that’s the biggest concern, more than a statement, that my time has been spent well.”

Listening to Heart Ego it’s hard to deny that it hasn’t. Sassy 009 remains a singular project, a hyper-pop project that feels like its hurtling through space, a balance of acceleration and phantasmagoria, of physicality and weightlessness.

Heart Ego

Forever Seventeen

Mystery Boy

Here Comes The Weekend

Red Plum

Wannabe

It's Complicated

Ego Heart Ego

The glitched new outing Red Plum plays on minimalism, relying on a handful of surging currents to bounce around the cavernous space before the atmosphere is cut through with squalling guitar. Speaking on her new track, Sassy 009 shares: “Red Plum represents the uncompromising, unfiltered headspace that, although I don’t show it myself, it is felt deeply on the inside. The idea came out of frustration over being trapped in-between the need of knowing what goes on in everyone’s lives through my phone, and the unpleasant feeling of observing someone who deals with their pain very publicly.”

Ayka has shared the dream-pop wanderlust single, Tokyo Garden. Sitting somewhere in between Tirzah and Broadcast, it shows Ayka proving herself equally adept at close-quarters folk and straight-up pop bangers.

Pop has always been at the centre of Ayka’s life as has a firm sense of DIY. “Apart from music, all other aspects of my life have been a drag” she says. “I flunked a lot of elementary school and listened to ABBA and Sex Pistols instead. We moved a lot and my father always made sure to set up a DIY-studio. I never learned how to read music, but I wish I did, although some say it’s a blessing. Not being classically trained feeds into my ego - both good and bad.”

Those who’ve followed the path of Oslo-based Sassy 009 and the constantly fluid, blurred edges of her hallucinogenic pop, will know that she’s an artist that follows emotion and mood, over strict narrative and composition.

Maybe something like: Through 2019s EP KILL Sassy 009 and subsequent tracks, including a collaboration with Clairo, Lingård’s pushed the project through re-imagined techno, breathy Scandi-pop and hyper R&B in a way that suggests an artist as excited as the listener to hear what might come next – as if each track acts as its own sandbox within which Lingård's allowed to play in.

The accompanying video finally gives an insight to Sassy 009's other passion: hitting the slopes with her badass all-female skate/snowboard crew 

. The footage follows Suni and her pals performing their favourite winter hobby and majestically gliding through the mountain tops of Norway.

Today, SASSY 009 shares her new track ‘Here Comes The Weekend’ on Luft Recordings. The pulsating Billie Eilish-meets-sunrise-in-Berghain outing sees the Oslo-based musician enter a new realm of the dance-floor as she sends tremors through it’s ceilings with her captivating vocals, crystallised synths and razor-sharp drums.

Speaking on the track, SASSY 009 personally observes the darker side of a hedonistic lifestyle: 

“When I started making this song, I envisioned myself sitting in a dark little apartment on a red leather couch staring into the smoke of a joint laying on the table. It led me into thinking of how complex the process of escaping a "sober" reality really is, and how I’ve willingly put myself in situations where self-control is on puzzling terms. ‘Here Comes The Weekend’ is all about that existentially risky moment of self realisation when things have already gone too far.”

The track follows her much-loved return with the “captivating new pop number” (DIY) 

 and the introduction into her new innovative adventure 

 with the retro Blue Racecar game. ‘Here Comes The Weekend’ unlocks the next SASSY009.WORLD component ‘Sassychat’, which gives fans and the audience a chance to chat all sorts directly to Sunni

After years of holding her music close, Ayka, with a little nudging from her friends, is finally ready to share it with the world. Tuna Tune is a shimmering debut single, which teeters and sways atop woozy synths and blurred reverb. It’s a track born out of a writing session with techno producer MRD and his pet cat, Sonja, but is indie lo-fi perfection in its lilting melodies and washes of sound.“I think a lot of time was spent sipping beer and playing with his cat, Sonja. I’ve later discovered that drinking and hanging out with animals is a usual session-thang. I tried writing through Sonja’s feline perspective. The encounter of someone new and the relaxed being of a cherished pet. It’s probably the most laid-back song I’ve ever done. It’s chill. And skater dudes agree - it’s been used in a couple shredding-montages.” Ayka explains on the track.

SASSY 009 (aka Sunniva Lindgård) returns with new single 'Blue Racecar' - out today on Luft Recordings. 'Blue Racecar' tells a story about an injured angel transitioning from one chapter to another, something SASSY 009 has always embraced as a musician. “The time has come for a change, whatever it may be - let it come.” as she explains.

Hear the new track through the revved up Blue Racecar game via 

 - an interdisciplinary oasis where music, film, graphic design and web design and development meet. In collaboration with Boden Studio, SASSY 009 has created a digital, interactive audiovisual universe that her fans will help to bring alive. The aim is to redefine the listening experience and challenge the traditional digital presence for an artist and audience.

“There are so many ways of ‘expressing music’ if you dare to push boundaries. Overwhelmingly, Boden beautifully helped to tie the entire journey together from start to finish. SO MUCH FUN, even at times where we were all scratching our heads.” shares SASSY 009 on it’s creation.

Ghost Town - Spotify Studio Oyster Recording

If Oslo-based Sunniva Lindgåard aka Sassy 009's last musical output 'KILL Sassy 009' - that led to celebratory press from the likes of Dazed, i-D, Vogue, Fader and more - was the 23 year old finding her feet as a producer and solo artist, then her new single Ghost Town confidently announces her arrival as a force to be reckoned with.

She's been enlisted by Spotify's new Oyster playlist, where they handpick the best emerging talents from the Nordic region (girl in red did the last), allowing them to release new music that reflects who they are. Recorded in lockdown, Sunni soundtracks the deserted dim lit streets of Oslo, through a potent acid bassline backed by skittering runaway breakbeats, with an ultra-hyper arena-sized hook that will no doubt be pumping through every street corner once things are back to normality.

"I see the sounds and musical universes I create in pictures."

"Ghost Town is illustrated in my head as a walk in the street at night, with moonlight shining a light on everything I see. I’m walking past abandoned cafés and places people used to hang around, feeling the cold rain hitting my skin, drop after drop. everything has changed. and I somehow feel left by myself, as if I was the last person standing on earth."

Ghost Town

…and yes, it’s an homage to Microsoft era Lara Croft. This crisp and catchy crossover tune offers the best of pop, indie and electronic music in one dreamy power package. A result of coincidences, the internet and great pop sensibility, “Lara” came about in 2018 when SASSY 009 happened to be 

close by to Clairo’s whereabouts in North America, and the energy of mutual admiration led the two artists together. The tune shows a new side of Sunniva Lindgård aka SASSY 009’s productions, with it’s soft synths and underwater world soundscapes. It’s still very much SASSY 009 however, showcased through the heavily distorted drums and leftfield breaks. In parallel, Clairo’s great sense of storytelling and melody shines through as strong as ever, with a vocal hook that will stick with you entering this next decade...

Lara (ft. Clairo)

Lara (feat. Clairo)

EP - that led to celebratory press from the likes of 

- Lindgaard began to explore the duality that arose from changing personal circumstances and prospering creative ones. “For the past few years I've learnt to live with a lot of unexpected wavy stuff turning me upside down emotionally,” she says. “While also seeing my musical career blossom. This two-sided lifestyle makes me create music for some reason, and the process evolves itself by my strong will of wanting to cut through the membrane between confusion and clarity.”

When trying to tap into the essence of her latest work, Lindgaard describes it as: “electronic, symphonic, poetic and hypnotizing.” all of which go someway to capturing the introspective euphoria of her latest work. Her vocals are at once fragile and floating, but also joyous and uplifting; underneath her voice sits rich, engulfing soundscapes, pulsing synths and cracking beats – it’s a place where ambient, dream pop, electronica and deconstructed club music all coalesce to find a new form.

The music captures a profound sense of intimacy, like having something whispered directly into your ear, but it’s also a vivacious and pulsating record that frequently erupts into throbs of pummelling electronics. The intimacy ultimately stemming from the simple roots of the music. “It always starts with me making music at home with my headphones,” she says. “I sit with a cup of tea or glass of red wine with some candles. I guess you could call it a classic bedroom pop situation but in my case it's more of a kitchen table pop thing.” But as those tracks evolve, they take on a more twisted and animated form, as she works with friend and co-producer Baya.

The songs evolving into new, previously unexplored terrain also fits in with what was running through Lindgaard’s head at the time. “I had quite an intense period of fascination for the universe and existential thoughts, as well as being very much into spaceship aesthetics.” The music reflects this deeply textured, thoughtful, otherworldly and almost sci-fi-esque tone. “I have a thing for things I don't understand, like time and space.” It was being introduced to the Roland Juno 106 and Oberheim-OB6 synths that led to the sound of the record taking shape and honing in on its aesthetic narrative. “My vision was to create my own spaceship. That's sort of the picture I have in my head when I think of my EP. Plus, my co-producer Baya’s studio sort of feels like a spaceship itself, which made the whole working and recording environment inspiring and easy going.”

The end of the project was not only a period of intense catharsis but also one of creative re-birth as Sassy 009 was re-born as a new project with a new identity.  “When I finished the record, me and Baya listened through with the lights off, laying on the couch and in an office chair, closing our eyes and experiencing the journey we just had created. After the last track had played there was this thirty seconds of silence between us and then I said, ‘Baya, I know what the title is going to be…KILL SASSY 009. And he just said, ‘There you have it, Sunni’.

Okay

“I believe setting goals is overrated,” says Sassy 009’s Sunniva Lindgaard. “Life unfolds in a much greater extent on its own terms.”

It’s a statement that is both simultaneously emblematic and at odds with Sassy 009’s latest release. On one hand, the hotly tipped trio is now a solo project - something no amount of planning could likely foresee - but on the other, the end result feels completely right to continue as an autonomous pursuit. “I must say working by myself feels very natural” she admits.

KILL SASSY 009

Fake News (Interlude)

Thrasher

Second Thought (Interlude)

Are You Still a Lover

Til (*****)

 ‘Are You Still a Lover’ explores the sensitive and more organic aspects of SASSY’s music, who grew up listening to the likes of Joy Division, even introducing electric guitar and bass guitar for the first time in a production. The result is an intimate post-punk inspired pop tune that, despite its fragile nature, has the drive and power stance to lock in listeners with its hypnotic momentum.

"On the SoundCloud page for 'Maybe In The Summer', a song from SASSY 09's new EP, two of the three posted comments are about its snare drum. It arrives after two minutes, and it's the kind of thing that DJ Stingray eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 'Maybe In The Summer' like much of SASSY 009's new EP, is essentially electro pop, but its snare is one of many examples of surprising production moments that align the record with adventurous dance music. 'Thrasher' has an even more striking instance of this. There's again an electro beat and an inviting vocal performance at its core, but this time things slip out of control when the beat is rushed by a massive, barking bassline and SASSY 09's vocal flips to a distorted yell. 

In fact, subtle distortion in various forms is an ongoing theme in 

, the first EP since Sunniva Lindgård took on the project, formerly a trio, by herself. We aren't a million miles away from an artist like Robyn, but the use of distortion is perhaps symbolic of the spiky sound Lindgård seems to want to cultivate. "Okay," the opener, wafts along gently with no indication that the arrangement will be squeezed to a dramatic crescendo. "MK3" is a less convincing example of the template, but the mellower pair of tracks that follow, closing this eight-track EP, are both strong and a little different. The post-punk-style bassline on "Are You Still a Lover" works especially nicely next to the fried drums and Lindgård's bruised voice, while "Til (*****)" also benefits from a standout bassline, this time a bouncing square wave. If electro pop with some bite and an ear for production sounds appealing, give this one a go."

You think of rappers and more often than not you think of swagger; a certain bravado and spectacle that oozes confidence and self-belief both in their personalities and their music. Rarely do you encounter someone who was a “complete nerd”, cripplingly shy and grew up in a nature-immersed town in Norway whilst going to Christian summer camp each year. However, this is one of many reasons that makes 24 year-old Pen Gutt such an original an artist.

As a result of an upbringing atypical to most rappers, Pen Gutt’s music is similarly atypical – existing in its own unique world in terms of tone, groove, flow and production. This Norwegian language music is even something the creator struggles to define himself. “I usually say it's a mixture of rap and folk music,” he says. “But the thing about genres is that as an artist I find it claustrophobic to work in a set of rules.”

The project combines the musical tastes of Pen Gutt along with his producer Samkopf, - “everything from Death Grips to Aphex Twin to 1950 Scandinavian musicals to Jpegmafia to Charlotte dos Santos” - and also owes a great deal to the Japenese anime series “Neon Genesis Evangelion”. Whilst you’ll need to speak Norwegian to understand the lyrics, they come from a period of real soul searching and when the character of Pen Gutt was created. “In my subconscious I think I had the idea of the whole album before I even started making it,” he says. “I’ve been a musician, model, actor and visual body performer and Pen Gutt is a character combined of all these professions and hobbies I've had until now. That's the reason why I really love music, because I get to combine everything I already love, and morph it into one project. The character is based on my experiences, but put in another universe. The same concepts and natural laws don’t apply to this universe. I like over-exaggerating situations and thoughts to make you feel something, rather than having it to be realistic.”

Album

Hold deg i varmen

valentin

øya lukket

undercover

dazed & confuzed

levende begravet

pen gutt

demoner

peters evangelium

hold deg i varmen

bare dans

forkynneren 3:1-8

It’s a statement that is both simultaneously emblematic and at odds with Sassy 009’s latest release. On one hand, the hotly tipped trio is now a solo project - something no amount of planning could likely foresee - but on the other, the end result feels completely right to continue as an autonomous pursuit. “I must say working by myself feels very natural,” she admits.

The album is also an exploration of death that came from Pen Gutt’s delve into philosophy. Reading works such as “Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Fear of Death”. This concept has been weaved into the album he says. “To stare at the sun simply means to face death head on and let your fears become a part of you. You realise that you can't escape death, but you can learn to live side by side with it.” However, whilst philosophy and long hours spent thinking about the meaning of life have informed this album, so to has the much more physical experience of death in his life. “Late last year I lost somebody really close, and it hit me like a train. I had never in my life experienced this much pain,” he says. And when he did begin to return to normal he found that “The darkness had become a part of me.”

Sykle Uten Hender

Bare Dans

A “sad tumblr girl” aesthetic with an indie sound to match, Pen Gutt shares the DIY visuals for his track 

Pen Gutt – or ​“pretty boy” as it translates in his native Norwegian – is a silky smooth musician with a folky edge. Having tried his hand at modelling, acting and visual body performance, his latest creative foray is into the wonky world of leftfield rap.

An amalgamation of his Scandi upbringing, deep dive into philosophy books and the Japanese anime series 

, the 24-year-old coos melodic bars in his mother’s tongue about ​“self discovery, life, death, philosophy and love”. As for the beat, expect infectious grooves and hazy electronic riffs.

The rising rapper will be releasing a 13-track album later this year, but for now, check out the visuals for his banger 

. A homespun video shot purely using Apple’s Photo Booth heart filter, watch Pen Gutt and a bunch of his mates grooving around Oslo. Then, once you’ve indulged in pure 2014 Facebook nostalgia, get the 100% scoop on this off-the-wall musician.

 is the soundtrack, from the Norwegian hip-hop rapper of the same name, for an upcoming movie directed by Håvard Sandvik

Undercover

Independent

23 year old Norwegian artist Pen Gutt debuts today with his first release ‘Independent’, premiered via 

. Pen Gutt’s debut release on Luft Recordings and Terrible Records is another signifier of the wealth of homegrown talent emerging from Norwegian shores - with ‘Independent’ following the likes of SASSY 009 and Sigrid in making waves on the global stage.

‘Independent’ was recorded last summer, shortly after Pen Gutt returned from a year in Denmark - “I had a lot to say, so everything just poured out,” he told The FADER. Explaining the joyful celebratory feeling bounce behind the chorus, he said, “The hook came from that I wanted to make it cool to say that you're independent, that you don’t need anybody but yourself, and it really doesn’t matter if you got a boss or not. You’re the one in charge.” In the true spirit of independence, the typically vibrant accompanying video was fully self-directed by Pen Gutt, too.

Are You Leaving

 is a trio of Oslo musicians and childhood friends—Teodora, Sunniva and Johanna (with no surnames that we know of)—who started making music together in school. They don’t explicitly say what roles they play in the group, like who’s the vocalist, or the producer, or who plays that insane flute solo on their fantastic new song, “Are You Leaving.” This unadorned backstory affords the group a refreshing air of simplicity and a touch of mystery: They don’t list influences or inspirations, and the previously released song in their scant discography, the icy techno-pop track “

,” was very different from the head-spinning bop of their newest offering. The second track from their upcoming EP, 

, is not just a hint at the dizzying range this trio possesses, but it’s a hands-in-the-air jam that will leave you riding high on an endorphin rush by the time it’s done.

Do You Mind EP

Summin' You Up

Pretty Baby

Feel Me

Wounds

BAYA is the artistic voice of Andrew Murray, a musician from Rykkin, Bærum. A Norwegian native with Ivorian and Scottish heritage. His debut, "Oslo-Harlem" is a very personal body of music, interspersed with recordings from the artist’s own interviews with his formerly estranged father, Bruno Baya Sompohi. The journey of their first meeting in Harlem, meant the foregoing of a traditional paternal relationship. The recognition of their shared artistic spirit provided the impetus behind BAYA. His father's artwork derives from the interaction between the traditional masks of his sub-Saharan African homeland and the architecture of Western religion, dubbed "Glalogy". It is a theme BAYA brings forward in the visual elements of his own work.

Through "Oslo-Harlem", BAYA manages to connect the missing dots between an artist and what made him who he is.

The sound is inspired by that reconnection; separate from his previous work, but still informed by the erratic and nuanced techniques he picked up whilst remixing under his previous moniker "Baardsen" (Grimes, Warpaint et al). His abstraction is music that saturates the frequency range in four dimensions. Persistent in wanting to fill every corner but also managing to foster the air between; the sound is bold and consuming, a cascading soundscape that clings elegantly to it's own ambience.

Airwalk

BAYA is the artistic voice of Andrew Murray, 28, a musician from Rykkin, Bærum. A Norwegian native with Ivorian and Scottish heritage.

His debut, "Oslo-Harlem" is a very personal body of music, interspersed with recordings from the artist’s own interviews with his formerly estranged father, Bruno Baya Sompohi. The journey of their first meeting in Harlem, meant the foregoing of a traditional paternal relationship. The recognition of their shared artistic spirit provided the impetus behind BAYA. His father's artwork derives from the interaction between the traditional masks of his sub-Saharan African homeland and the architecture of Western religion, dubbed "Glalogy". It is a theme BAYA brings forward in the visual elements of his own work.

Releases