Jonna Lee is back as IONNALEE after the more organic IAMAMIWHOAMI record ‘Be Here Soon’ in 2022 which saw her return to her folk singer-songwriter roots.
What’s the difference between the two one may ask? IAMAMIWHOAMI is a full duo effort between Jonna Lee and Claes Björklund who himself works solo as BARBELLE; thus IONNALEE is the solo moniker of Lee although perhaps confusingly to some, Björklund is still closely involved on instrumentation as well as occasionally production and mix.
‘Close Your Eyes’ sees Jonna Lee return to the electronic sound which she launched with IAMAMIWHOAMI in 2009 and continued as IONNALEE from 2018. But this third IONNALEE long player after ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ and ‘Remember The Future’ and comes with a twist in that it has a Swedish Language twin in ‘Blund’; “I recently moved out of Stockholm back to the area where I grew up in Östergötland” she said, “Singing in my mother tongue gives my artistry a different angle and that feels really exciting – it’s like exploring a new language!”
Lush and airy, opening tune ‘La La love’ begins like classic IONNALEE with a stutter but then bursts into a straight passage of synth bass and strums while questioning whether the physical disconnect in today’s virtual world has muted the ability to feel love.
‘Innocence Of Sound’ is slightly more chilling, reinforced by a rumbling engine room that recalls her earlier IAMAMIWHOAMI albums ‘Kin’ and ‘Blue’ with rich toplines to compliment the delightful oddness with a breathless energy in an anthem for today’s troubled times.
‘Not Your Cherry’ steadies the pace with a zing and a declaration to not play second fiddle using a delightful cake baking metaphor. A combination of droning synths and ethnic instrumentation colours ‘Forgive Her’ and while the vocals dominate, a cutting drum loop takes hold at the end.
The beautiful avant Scandipop of ‘Luminary Rainbows’ is a sumptuously widescreen highlight that declares it is good to chase the dream and thrive. Another is ‘The End Of Every Song’ which surprises with a thumping rhythm and a cacophony of chunky sequences and piercing electronics, the vocals sitting brilliantly like ABBA on helium in outer space!
The punchy digital computer grooves continue on ‘Run Wild’ but as ‘Darkness Is A Real Place’, IONNALEE sounds forlorn on a song that if orchestrated could be Celine Dion; but over a sparse backdrop of chilling synthetic strings and drum machine, it comes over marvellously otherworldly.
The sampled cello and guitar sees ‘You Hold Me Like Water’ project an ominous mood but the bubbling synths provide the contrast that pushes song structure conventions. The cinematic closer ‘Who’ seeks sanctuary and a request to “take me somewhere safe” within a glorious pool of sound design.
By going back to crystalline electronic backdrops on ‘Close Your Eyes’ after the folk and jazz inflected excursions of ‘Be Here Soon’, Jonna Lee has highlighted, whether as IONNALEE or IAMAMIWHOAMI, what actually sets her part for any number of Nordic singer-songwriters. In placing her traditional voice in an otherworldly setting, the contrast is what helps to provide that mysteriously emotive resonance in her sound.
‘Close Your Eyes’ is about how to dream during dark times and maintaining hope in a less than certain future. While there is much melancholy throughout, there are many moments of lifting optimism as well.
First launched in 2009 with a series of mysterious viral videos, IAMAMIWHOAMI are back after a recorded absence of eight years.
Following the ambitious ‘B.O.U.N.T.Y.’ EP and two acclaimed albums ‘Kin’ and ‘Blue’, the Swedish duo of Jonna Lee and Claes Björklund embarked on solo projects respectively as IONNALEE and BARBELLE. Despite this, the pair did not actually become creatively estranged as the two IONNALEE albums to date ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ and ‘Remember The Future’ featured Björklund in varying studio roles including instrumentation, co-production and final mix.
Although both IAMAMIWHOAMI and IONNALEE were both notable for their delightfully odd cinematic sound that was enjoyed by the electronic music cognoscenti, the new album ‘Be Here Soon’ turns the clock back to Jonna Lee’s artist debut as a folk singer and songwriter in 2007.
With Björklund now a father and Lee becoming pregnant soon after starting the album, the rebonded over parenthood with a collective intent to make a record that was true to where their lives were in the present. Thus the audio / visual journey documents the growing of new life as Lee challenged society’s expectations of her as a mother and an artist.
The opening song ‘Don’t Wait For Me’ is a suitably airy in the manner of Angelo Badalamenti, but it is more organic sounding and distinctly less electronic with sax thrown into the mix, a farewell to the past and a start of a new chapter. Gently beat laden but augmented by six string, ‘Canyon’ is a duet with veteran singer Lars Winnerbäck which exudes a more folkie presence in that GOLDFRAPP ‘Seventh Tree’ fashion.
Meanwhile ‘Zeven’ adds more of a manual percussive swing before livening up and the shuffling ‘I Tenacious’ offers icy Nordic jazz. The spacier moods of ‘Changes’ recall earlier IAMAMIWHOAMI works but the live drums and flute throw off the scent. The sparse but filmic ‘Flying or Falling’ makes subtle use of timpani, castanets and operatic soprano.
Embracing piano, ‘A Thousand Years’ is suitably demure before the appearance of a choir and the surprise of tinkling ivories over a skippy backbone. The acoustic guitar driven ‘Thunder Lightning’ brings in a range of woodwinds including the big bassoon but ‘Call My Name’ recalls EXIT NORTH with an eerie feminine twist before ‘Walking On Air’ with its cosmic synth solo closes what is a very different IAMAMIWHOAMI record.
With traditional colours and jazzier inflections, these songs are presented with the minimum of electronic seasoning. If you appreciated the approach of GOLDFRAPP’s ‘Seventh Tree’, you will enjoy ‘Be Here Soon’. With Jonna Lee now a proud mother, that joy can be celebrated collectively in the music.
To narrow down ten years of electronic pop to 30 songs was always going to be a challenging task. But ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK has given it a go to offer its own subjective twist.
As the decade started, female artists like LITTLE BOOTS, LA ROUX and LADYHAWKE had appeared to have been making in-roads into the mainstream as new flag bearers for the synthesizer.
But it proved to be something of a false dawn and while those artists continue today, the music that has made the most lasting impact between 2010-2019 has been made by evergreens from Synth Britannia whose talent has not subsided or independently minded musicians who focussed on art over commerce but didn’t forget to throw in a tune along the way.
As per usual, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s lists are all about rules. So this one has not only been restricted to one song per artist moniker but also to one vocalist. Hence SIN COS TAN just get the nod over VILLA NAH, while MIRRORS take preference over James New’s guest slot for FOTONOVELA on ‘Our Sorrow’ and the Midge Ure vocalled ‘Glorious’ has been chosen instead ULTRAVOX’s ‘Live’.
Presented in alphabetical order, here are our 30 SONGS OF THE DECADE 2010-2019…
With alternative songstress NYXX on additional vocals, ‘Rhythm + Control’ saw Daniel Graves take his industrial pop to the next level. It realised an oddball blend of Darren Hayes, Britney Spears and Marilyn Manson. With a mighty elastic bassline, when asked if ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK was crazy coming up with the comparison, he replied “God no. Spot on, guys!” adding “The goal was to cram as many features into one song and have fun with it as possible.”
With its solidarity to the synth and close to the heart of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, Synth Is Not Dead’ is a touching tribute to Messrs Clarke, Gore, Hütter and Schneider. Johan Baeckstrom said: “I guess I just wanted to reflect on the fact that there still IS a synthpop scene with some really great bands, both old and new. In another way, the song is sort of my ‘thank you’ to some of the artists that inspired me for several decades – some of them are mentioned in the lyrics, but far from all of course”.
Available on the EP ‘Come With Me’ via Progress Productions
‘Without A Trace Of Emotion’ saw Karl Bartos conversing with his showroom dummy Herr Karl and confronting his demons as an ex-member of the world’s most iconic electronic group. But whereas his former colleague Wolfgang Flür vented his spleen in book form with ‘I Was A Robot’, Bartos took a more ironic musical approach with the line “I wish I could remix my life to another beat” summing up a wry reference to ‘The Mix’ project which drove him out of Kling Klang!
BEYOND THE WIZARD’S SLEEVE featuring HANNAH PEEL Diagram Girl (2016)
BEYOND THE WIZARDS SLEEVE’s ‘Diagram Girl’ was the work of Erol Alkan and Richard Norris of THE GRID. Featuring the unisex vocals of Hannah Peel, a deeper pitch shift provided a psychedelic out-of-this-world feel which bizarrely fitted in alongside the songstress’ dreamily breathy tones. “They wanted me to sound like a man!” she remembered. Meanwhile the pulsing electronic soundtrack had surreal echoes of OMD and their lesser known minor hit ‘Secret’.
Available on the single ‘Diagram Girl’ via Phantasy Sound
Muscian, producer and Italians Do It Better head honcho Johnny Jewel, has lways been into all things Lynchian. So when CHROMATICS released the dreamy Badalamenti-inspired ‘Shadow’, it instantly recalled The Black Lodge’s red curtains in that sleepy Washington town. With Ruth Radelet’s wispy vocal and an eerie string machine for the main melodic theme, the ghostly wistful tune later came to further prominence thanks to its inclusion in ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ in 2017.
CHVRCHES stuck to the synthpop template of their 2013 debut and as a result, delivered what LITTLE BOOTS, LA ROUX, and LADYHAWKE and HURTS all failed to do… a decent second album! The propulsive four-to-the-floor action of ‘Clearest Blue’ was wonderfully held in a state of tension before WHACK, there was a dynamic surprise in the final third that recalled the classic overtures of Vince Clarke. The song was electronic pop magnificence embroiled.
RODNEY CROMWELL is the alter-ego of Adam Cresswell, formally of ARTHUR & MARTHA. ‘Black Dog’ recalled the pulsing post-punk miserablism of SECTION 25 and was embellished by some Hooky styled bass. As with NEW ORDER’s ‘Temptation’, despite the inherent melancholy, there was an optimistic light at the end of the tunnel that made ‘Black Dog’ a most joyous listening experience despite its very personal themes of love, loss, depression and redemption.
Available on the album ‘Age Of Anxiety’ via Happy Robots Records
The ‘All You Need Is Now’ album saw DURAN DURAN cyclically return to the funk-led syncopated pop of their first two classic albums. A superb sequencer assisted disco number with a tingling metallic edge, ‘Being Followed’ hinted at THE CURE’s ‘A Forest’ while Nick Rhodes’ vintage string machine captured the tension of post 9/11 paranoia. Simon Le Bon gave his wayward all and while he has technically never had a great voice, what he delivered was unique.
Despite EAST INDIA YOUTH being no more as a project, the debut album ‘Total Strife’ pointed towards William Doyle’s potential to pen sublime pop, and with the follow-up ‘Culture Of Volume’, the album’s centrepiece was ‘Carousel’. It imagined OMD’s ‘Stanlow’ reworked during Brian Eno’s sessions for ‘Apollo’. With no percussive elements and over six minutes in length, Doyle gave a dramatic vocal performance resonating in beautifully crystalline melancholy.
‘Glorious’ not only reunited Midge Ure with Rusty Egan but also Chris Payne who co-wrote ‘Fade To Grey’; Ure said: “I liked the music, but I didn’t think the song / melody / lyrics were strong enough, so I rewrote all of that in my studio. I stripped the demo down to the basic track, edited it down into a more ‘song like’ format and started working on a glorious melody. I added the main melodic synth line and layered guitars over it, ending with the ‘hopefully’ uplifting solo over the outro”.
With ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’, EMIKA produced one of the best electronic albums of 2018. The record was a concept album of sorts, a musical reflection on generations of sadness within the Anglo-Czech musician’s family. The pacey ‘Promises’ made the most of her lower and higher vocal registers, providing an eerie cascading harmonic with some rumbling dubby tension and booming stabs driving Eastwards with solemn spine tingling qualities.
Available on the album ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ via Emika Records
John Foxx and Jori Hulkkonen had worked together previously on singular songs like ‘Dislocated’ and ‘Never Been Here Before’, but never before on a body of work. ‘European Splendour’ took on a grainier downtempo template and ‘Evangeline’ was all the more beautiful for it. Full of depth, coupled with an anthemic chorus and vibrant exchange of character throughout, this rousing futuristic number was quite otherworldly.
Releasing their first new material in over three decades, FIAT LUX returned with the most splendid ‘It’s You’. As well as the bassline and harmony from David P Crickmore, the sax style was a fitting tribute to the sadly departed Ian Nelson. Singer Steve Wright said: “Lyrically, I hope, it expresses feelings that possibly everyone can relate to…” in this gloriously optimistic tune about finding love again in midlife. Their long awaited debut album ‘Saved Symmetry’ finally came out in 2019.
As the title suggested, the gorgeous and sophisticated ‘Dreaming’ adopted a distinctly European flavour compared with the mid-Atlantic AOR focus of songs like ‘Rocket’, ‘Alive’ and ‘Believer’ on the ‘Head First’ album. Alison Goldfrapp’s voice resonated angelically with beautiful high-register chorus alongside the with pulsing sequences and string machine washes of Will Gregory’s primarily electronic arrangement complimented by Davide Rossi’s cinematic orchestrations.
Available on the album ‘Head First’ via Mute Records
The Berlin period of IAMX has maintained a special quality in that Chris Corner captured an electro Gothic aesthetic that combined the theatrics of Weimar Cabaret with themes of sex, alienation and dependency. Despite the lyrical content, Corner’s songs were always strongly melodic with an accessible grandeur. ‘Ghosts Of Utopia’ had instant appeal for a dance in the dark with exhilarating mechanical drive. His scream of ”this is psychosis” was wholly believable!
As IAMAMIWHOAMI, Jonna Lee and Claes Björklund offered icy musical art. ‘Hunting For Pearls’ featured wonderfully pulsing sequences and trancey atmospheres, coupled with beautifully rich vocals. With a mysterious falsetto reach, the air might have been cold outside but inside, things were warm if delightfully odd. If Kate Bush made a modern electronic dance record at ABBA’s Polar Studios, it would have sounded like this. She continues the adventure now as IONNALEE.
Available on the album ‘Blue’ via towhomitmayconcern
Sweden’s KITE are probably the best synth act in Europe right now. Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg’s wonderfully exuberant array of sounds and rugged majestic vocals certainly deserve a much larger audience. Issuing only EPs and never albums, the magnificent progressive electronic epic ‘Up For Life’ was a two-part nine minute masterpiece, the passionate and sublime first half mutated into a beautifully surreal journey of VANGELIS-like proportions for its second.
Asking if “it is foolish to dream”, ‘Someday’ saw Katja von Kassel questioning a moment of passionate haste. “The phrase ‘Someday’ just opened it all up and everything else just fell into place.” the chanteuse said. Capturing the beautiful melancholy of Billy Mackenzie, the doomed romantic tragedy of the sadly departed Scot was echoed by the chanteuse’s deep forlorn delivery, accompanied by Chris Payne’s hypnotic bassline and haunting vox humana treatment over a rhythmic loop.
The beautiful ‘Ambulances’ was totally different to anything LADYTRON had done before, almost in te vein of SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES. Moving at a much slower pace, Helen Marnie’s voice adopted an unexpected angelic falsetto over the lush spacious mix featuring dramatic strings, synthetic timpani and an offbeat hi-hat pattern. Daniel Hunt said he “wanted it to sound ethereal and otherworldly”; with a glorious crescendo, ‘Ambulances’ was something to be savoured.
A worthy of re-assessment of DEPECHE MODE ‘A Broken Frame’ was long overdue and MARSHEAUX have certainly gave a number of its songs some interesting arrangements. Their version of ‘Monument’ borrowed its bassline from latter day DM B-side ‘Painkiller’. Combined with the wispily resigned vocals of Marianthi Melitsi and Sophie Sarigiannidou, it provided a tense soundtrack. It’s not often that cover versions are better than the originals, but this was one of them.
MIRRORS presented an intense and artful approach to electronic pop that recalled Dindisc era OMD. With a dense synthetic chill and pulsing effects dominating this brilliantly uptempo electro number, ‘Ways To An End’ came over like TALKING HEADS ‘Crossed Eyed & Painless’ given a claustrophobic post-punk makeover. Sadly, MIRRORS were to only make the one album ‘Lights & Offerings’ which although under-appreciated on release, is now acknowledged as a classic of the decade.
Having worked successfully with Guy Sigsworth on ‘the minutes’, which saw Alison Moyet return to the synthesized music forms to compliment her powerful self-assured voice, the follow-up ‘Other’ was a natural progression. The startling orchestrated electro-dub drama of ‘Alive’ gave Moyet’s two former classmates in DEPECHE MODE a stark lesson in how to fully realise electronic blues. Indeed, it was ‘In Chains’, the lame opener from ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ gone right…
After the lst few guitar dominated NEW ORDER albums, Bernard Sumner promised a return to electronic music for the Mancunians’ first album of new material without estranged founder member and bassist Peter Hook. That was certainly delivered on with ‘Plastic’, a full-on throbbing seven minute electro number mixed by Richard X with blippy echoes of ‘Mr Disco’. Dealing with the issue of superficiality, it declared “this love is poison, but it’s like gold”… beware of anything plastic and artificial!
With a lot less goth metal guitar and more prominent use of synths, the ‘Savage’ album successfully outstripped ‘Splinter’. It was the haunting ‘And It All Began With You’ that stopped all in its tracks, with an exposed and soulful vocal. Borrowing Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ for its chorus, the subtle orchestrations and a gentle shuffling beat coupled to a steadily discordant electric piano riff to close, it brought out the best in classic Gary Numan while maintaining forward momentum.
OMD began their recorded career with a KRAFTWERK homage in ‘Electricity’ and four decades on, they came full circle. A great grandchild of Klingklang and cousin of ‘Metroland’ from ‘English Electric’, ‘Don’t Go’ captured the essence of OMD’s enduring electronic appeal. With crystalline synths and a spirited vocal delivery attached to a hypnotic Synthanorma backdrop, OMD continue to produce quality avant pop tunes, using beautiful melodies to tell terrible things…
SIN COS TAN was the new mathematically charged project of producer Jori Hulkkonen and VILLA NAH vocalist Juho Paalosmaa. “A synthesized duo of great promise, broken dreams, and long nights”, they have certainly delivered with ‘Trust’, all draped in melancholy with emotive vocals haunted by the ghost of Billy Mackenzie. With driving hypnotic, layered strings, sampled cimbalom and Cold War dramatics, this was as Jori Hulkkonen put it: “Disco You Can Cry To”…
Available on the album ‘Sin Cos Tan’ via Solina Records
Chinese six-piece STOLEN are reckoned by Berlin-based producer Mark Reeder to be the most exciting band since NEW ORDER and they closed the decade opening for them on tour in Europe. Certainly their debut album ‘Fragment’ was impressive with ‘Turn Black’ being one of its standout tracks. “I like the idea of mixing of rock with techno…” said growly lead vocalist Liang Yi, “we are very proud that we don’t sound like any of the other Chinese bands.”
The Nordic vocalist of the decade has to be Susanne Sundfør who worked with M83, KLEERUP and RÖYKSOPP as she built her international profile as a solo artist. Propelled by a pulsing electronic backbone, ‘Fade Away’ from Sundfør’s breakthrough album ‘Ten Love Songs’ caught her in rousing form with a tune that came over like Scandinavian gospel. Meanwhile, a fabulous polyphonic synth solo inspired by QUEEN’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ added another dimension.
Available on the album ‘Ten Love Songs’ via Sonnet Sound / Kobalt
First appearing online as a video exclusive in 2010, ‘Deep Red’ was inspired by Dario Argento’s ‘Profondo Rosso’. A gorgeous seven and a half minute funeral ballad that came over like CLIENT fronting classic OMD, this was tremendously dramatic stuff from Anais Neon and Martin Swan. It caught the ear of Andy McCluskey who spotted VILE ELECTRODES while perusing ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK and later invited them to open for OMD in 2013.
Techno DJ WESTBAM celebrated 30 years in music with an intriguing mature collection of songs under the title of ‘Götterstrasse’. While the theme of the album centred on the joy and euphoria of underground nightlife, he said ‘You Need The Drugs’ was “the first explicit electronic appeal AGAINST the use of drugs with a clear message: drugs are a bore!”. Voiced brilliantly by Richard Butler of THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS’, it featured in Mark Reeder’s film ‘B Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979–1989’.
Jonna Lee aka IONNALEE aka IAMAMIWHOAMI has made a curious comeback with a follow up to her first solo outing of ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’.
Unlike her works with IAMAMIWHOAMI, which were mysteriously messy and unsettling, the music of IONNALEE simplified matters, adding a romantic feel to her otherwise unusual disposition and ‘Remember The Future’ maintains that minimal approach.
“What will the future bring?” has been the most commonly asked question amongst electronic artists of today.
But Jonna Lee’s take on things is most likely to be compared to her Swedish compatriots of THE KNIFE or KITE, only far more musical. The album cover sees Lee and her own metal creation of a “retro space-age symbol” lurking amongst not the most comfortable of landscapes, illustrating the inhospitable feel of the opus.
Whether or not the ‘Open Sea’ has the power to suck one in with its powerful waves, Lee is prepared to fight using the medium of melodic pop, building up into an explosion of newly found positivity in the otherwise gloomy outlook. Perhaps becoming somewhat delirious, raising up to higher heights is induced by the “meds (that are) wearing off” on ‘Wipe It Off’, where the scratch is only bleeding and bleeding.
The break comes on ‘Some Body’, which stands out as an irregular synthwave track, a true example of Novelty Synthpop. The “good times” are wholesome and things are looking up, forgetting the threats and dropping the otherwise dystopian themes.
The lofty mood is brought down on ‘Matters’, a noteworthy collaboration with Zola Jesus. This lengthy track calls for unity against the impending disaster, floatingly leading into the heart of what’s important, gathering allies and warning against narrowmindedness. Lee’s voice plays around Zola Jesus’ powerful vocal bringing deeper meaning to the lyric “raise our voices”.
The eponymous track represents the easier listening qualities of IONNALEE’s propositions bridging the romantic past with uncertain future, while ‘Race Against’ stacks the Tetris gravitating between the gentile and harsh, outwardly and terrifying.
Jennie Abrahamson joins Lee on ‘Crystal’, a punctuated romance in a bottle, where the slower pace strokes senses with delicate rhythms like vintage Janet Jackson ballads. ‘Silence My Drum’ with its Celtic qualities graduates into a blistering extravaganza of pure pop, while ‘I Keep’ distorts with sci-fi elements and futuristic plug-ins.
The biggest surprise comes in the form of the cover of ‘Mysteries Of Love’, the iconic Angelo Badalamenti ‘Blue Velvet’ song with lyrics penned by David Lynch, originally performed by Julee Cruise and later brought back to life by Kid Moxie. Supported by RÖYKSOPP, Lee shows off a different side of her femininity, stealing the moment with angelic voices and big synth leads.
Jonna Lee has made herself a little masterpiece: “It’s a hopeful visionary album of daring to dream, and shooting for the stars, despite the paradoxical underlying chafing knowledge that we are destroying our planet. To me, the album has a kinetic energy. I felt much more confident and free when producing it, both as an artist, person and a producer.”
‘Remember The Future’ is released by To Whom It May Concern in CD, vinyl LP and digital formats
IONNALEE made her London live debut appropriately at Heaven and like her recorded work, it was a full-on audio / visual experience.
The vehicle of the mysterious Swedish singer / songwriter / producer / filmmaker Jonna Lee, the memorable presentation comprised of a powerful electronic soundtrack, engaging performance art and striking but unimposing visuals.
IONNALEE is both a new start and the continuation of a story that began with IAMAMIWHOAMI, her previous project with producer Claes Björklund which produced three enticing bodies of work in ‘Bounty’, ‘Kin’ and ‘Blue’. And although Björklund has been involved behind the mixing desk under his BARBELLE moniker for the acclaimed ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’, it is Lee’s debut long player as a solo artist.
But before the main act, the eager audience were treated to a fine half hour set from MAN WITHOUT COUNTRY, the stage name of Welshman Ryan James. Operating in not dissimilar sonic territory to MAPS, his last album ‘Maximum Entropy’ was in 2015.
However, the new single ‘Remember the Bad Things’ has acted as an enticing trailer for a new body of work ‘Infinity Mirror’ to be released in the Autumn.
Combining a mastery of synth, guitar and drums, James’ set also included the percussive cacophony of ‘Entropy’, the dreamy but urgent ‘Puppets’ from his 2012 album ‘Foe’ and an excellent rendition of ‘Sordid Affair’, his wonderful collaboration with RÖYKSOPP from their last opus ‘The Inevitable End’.
No stranger to collaborating with RÖYKSOPP herself, Lee began her show with the frantic oddball drama of ‘Work’ and ‘Not Human’, an electro-Eurovision tune that could be best described as ABBA’s ‘Summer Night City’ on acid!
Delightfully odd in her white catsuit with many kooky exaggerated mime movements supported by a similarly attired girl / boy dance duo, the show enjoyably came over rather like Kate Bush at a rave, meeting The Man Who Fell To Earth.
A section of the IAMAMIWHOAMI catalogue was delivered via the widescreen air of ‘Fountain’, the moody ‘Chasing Kites’ and the rigid arty synthpop of ‘T’, each making fine use of Lee’s characteristic Scandifolk vocal style. Meanwhile ‘Play’ from ‘Kin’ offered some enigmatic downtempo weirdness as an interlude to the space age discothèque format of the evening.
With IONNALEE being more upfront and less abstract than IAMAMIWHOAMI, guest contributions have been a feature of ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ with TR/ST and Jamie McDermott of THE IRREPRESSIBLES both figuring.
Quietly charismatic, McDermott quietly took to the Heaven stage to add his dulcet tones for the glorious duet ‘Dunes of Sand’ and after Lee’s Nordic rap on ‘Samaritan’, returned to join her on the ‘Bounty’ track ‘Y’.
For the well-deserved encore, the CHVRCHES-like ‘Gone’ and the meditative wash of ‘Blue Blue’ marked the journey home before a brilliant funked up update of ‘Goods’, one of the highlights from ‘Kin’ with its classic swirling synth attack.
All-in-all, it was a terrific and unforgettable night of dynamic electronic pop presented as colourful and dramatic theatre.
And with change left over from twenty of your English pounds, IONNALEE is the perfect escapist tonic in these slightly more turbulent socio-economic times as the hottest value-for-money ticket of 2018.
The ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ tour continues throughout 2018, dates include:
Copenhagen Lille Vega (18 May), Stockholm Slaktkyrkan (19 May), Moscow Red Club (9 June),
Saint Petersburg Stereoleto (10 June), Cardiff Festival of Voice (16 June), São Paulo Cine Joia (23 August), Rio de Janeiro Queremos! Festival (25 August), Göteborg Statement Festival (31 August), Kiev Bel Letage (12 October), Prague Meet Factory (13 October), Berlin Berghain Club (17 October)
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(V/A) via Rhino Records
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maintains that minimal approach.
. And although Björklund has been involved behind the mixing desk under his BARBELLE moniker for the acclaimed ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’, it is Lee’s debut long player as a solo artist.
was in 2015.
and an excellent rendition of ‘Sordid Affair’, his wonderful collaboration with 
.
offered some enigmatic downtempo weirdness as an interlude to the space age discothèque format of the evening.
track ‘Y’.
is released by To Whom It May Concern via the usual digital platforms and direct from 
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