Atelier, artist, icon — Annika Zee
Adventuring beyond the floral valleys and grandiose gardens with prolific pop icon Annika Zee; press photo courtesy of Guarionex Jr.
As we sail toward the twilight of 2024, the world’s top visionaries are offering their most grandiose works and meticulously focused pop projects to date. The future is uncertain, the prognostics of our global situations are concerning at the very best. We cast our cares upon those faded vestiges of light that posses that flicker of hopeful promise that somehow humanity can potentially prevail and obtain a sense of all but impossible harmony. A sign that just maybe the regressive and negative trends will invert the pull of entropy and offer a new Age of Reason, ein epoche von Aufklärungg, un siècle de Lumières nouveau. But even as the anxiety reaches a towering atmospheric scale, the houses of parliaments’ pillars crumble into the sands of sacred ancestral earth, the battlefields beleaguered by chronic fatigue and repetitive stress injuries, as civic stability and industrial integrity experiences a dereliction of duty — an era of art and enlightenment becomes the new imperative of higher education and informed acknowledgements and observations.
Opening up the mythic gates to new dimensions of light is one of 2024’s biggest records from one of the world’s most important artists Annika Zee. The esteemed NYC by way of Toronto pop icon presents the magnificent world of Magnolia via Absurd TRAX, an album of heart and soul lead rhythms that rides toward new degrees of affection and a search for understanding. The prolific artist and designer has spent over a decade redefining what dance based music can be, compounding the world of kinetic and canonical creations into new heightened forms of pop crafts that paint new poignant songs that survey our surrounding societies and the sanctuaries of the self. Magnolia is a journey that searches the reconciliation and assertion of the self in a world of hardships and heartbreaks that marks the latest in Zee’s ever expansive catalogue that counts Patience, Bleu, Factory Pageant, Aging Aesthetics, and many other works that assert how art and expressive actualization takes shape in a rapidly shifting world. A singular pivotal force that forecasted the mainstream sartorial intersection of artistic agency once again shows the entire world how it’s done.
Magnolia blooms like sky fallen stars that descends in a rain of greens, pinks, purples, yellows, and a barrage of muted petal varieties. Opener “The Knife” cuts with a candid immersion of sadness that connects the disparate constellations between souls, the unrequited songs of the heart and the search for a deeper understanding of what love is (and how love manifests itself into the fabric between two people and the framework of their lives). “Knife” dissolves the veil of reality for the realm of a dreamworld where lost loves meet and depart in equal measures in a dance like a romantic-tragic opera that mirrors the movements of our awakened existence of self serving ego, and the superego extents of generous empathy.
“Jane” moves gracefully like a letter to a beloved friend that is arranged like a trip-hop punctuated novella. The winter aura permeates every utterance, every iota of rhythmic expression like the flow of thoughts that stir about the mind on a rainy day before the snowfall arrives. Title track “Magnolia” underscores the album as a bonafide dance record designed for discreet ballrooms for those that keep serenely in step with their most guarded reflections and sacred sentiments. Annika delves deep into the ether on the mix with an ambience reminiscent of vintage cult video game compositions from Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka where the worlds of earth and the outer expanses collide together to a bewildering effect. These ethereal elements are further incorporated into the fashionably fabulous beat craft of “It’s Not Hard” that transforms the landscapes of loverly doting, and discourse into a rhythm runway suited for all styles of exuberance and the vast tarmac expanses of the ecstatic.
All throughout Magnolia, Annika Zee serves up more major moods than a treasured compilation compact disc from the late 1990s. The vibe rides high through the crowds and clamor on the suave, savvy, and sophistication of “You Know Me” that asserts a strong sense of belief in the self amid an addictive array of understated, tense, gingerly percolating percussive arrangements. The inner-exploratory modes neatly dovetail into the fluttering pastoral “Beauty Pangs” that aches with the woodwinds, acoustic strings, and church bells that gracefully rings with exasperated exhalations of inherent human imperfections. Employing a multitude of soft touched subtleties, Zee sweeps the listener to those mindful places where all meditative notions meet on the intersectional streets of stressors and anxious avenues gather and dissolve into the cradling arms of restful tranquility.
Cuing the credit roll and curtain drop is the moving ballad “Don’t Go Away”. An album that is steeped in the sentimental and ultra-sublime; Annika closes out the momentous occasion with a waltz for the ones we hold close to us in an otherwise cold and chaotic world. “Don’t Go Away” moves like the last dance in a lonely roadhouse ballroom, a slow dance at that shack by the side of the tracks for sad, star-crossed lovers striving to figure it out over a pint or two of confusion in a quest for a desired place, peace, and spirit quelling calm. Magnolia is a record that enraptures the spirit, body, and mind that rewards the listener on repeated listens that pulls you deeper into Annika’s mesmerizing meditations on the wayward desires of the restless heart. A soirée for the senses, symphonies for the soul, and a cycle of songs to stir the motions and emotions of our beings — Magnolia blossoms as one of Annika’s most magnificent records yet and one of 2024’s most incredible albums.
Annika Zee shared some reflective thoughts via the following exchange:
Notes on the process, notes on the experience, notes on the points of praxis with Annika Zee; photographed by Guarionex Jr.
Floral meditations on the inspirations behind Magnolia.
I used to have a Magnolia tree outside my house that I grew up in in Toronto so they remind me of a feeling of comfort and of being home. I wanted to take the concept of how some flowers close and open so in the track “Magnolia” I talk about closing to stay away. Staying away meaning to keep my distance from city life to protect my peace and state of mind in this period of my life as I go down a more spiritual path of self-discovery. Flowers are also distinct and unique but all beautiful which is a way of combating racism when we think of standards of female beauty. It also has multiple interpretations but I want to leave it open for the listener to interpret.
The challenges and paths of channeling candid intimacy and emotion into creative expressions.
Some of these songs were written 5 years ago—“Jane”—and “Don't Go Away” was written 10 years ago so it's a palette across time and space while the latest track “You Know Me” was a year or so ago. I think being honest in the moment is what matters even if it is not how you are feeling currently, I am all about capturing raw emotion at a certain point in time to make memory capsules.
Insights on the inceptions of orchestrating sophisticated rhythmic dance pop and so much more.
For “It's Not Hard” Louie Short was extremely helpful of organizing the rhythmic section and instructing Alex Nunes who played excellently on that track to bring it to life at the end. I listen to a lot of Detroit and NYC electronic music so that informed my approach to creating interesting rhythms. I'm also interested in my Scandinavian roots that are close to Lappland so I listened to shamanic Sami music because those indigenous people are near that region and use drums and chanting.
Notes on growth from the beginning to 2024 with thoughts on what’s next.
I've definitely grown in terms of finding a balance between innovation and achieving a classic sound. I'd like to be more innovative and modern for my upcoming project which I will be recording closely with Louie Short, a friend and collaborator and great musician in his own right. I also want to work with musicians in New York which I will be trying to organize soon and my friend Chris Doyle in Amsterdam. I'm thinking of doing a piano instrumental version of Magnolia to release as a side project to showcase the songwriting.
Annika Zee’s Magnolia is available now via Absurd TRAX.