Anna Aaron is back with “Gummy”, fifth pop album in which she brings her voice into dialogue with machines and percussion. The singer imagined it in parallel with an ambient album produced with Bernard Trontin, drummer of the Young Gods also appearing in the credits.
Anna Aaron paid particular attention to the form in “Gummy” to try to free herself from the classic structures of pop by injecting electronic music into it. The dialogue that the Baloise manages to create between percussion, machines, voice and piano is thus extremely rich.
At the same time very rhythmic, melodic and experimental, the repertoire of “Gummy” also often hosts pieces in two parts, where a first very pop time coexists with a second more atmospheric and electronic. Like songs that would be in transition, like the identity transformations sung by Anna Aaron who says she is touched by “people who have the courage and dare to leave their comfort zone”.
>> To see: the clip of “Double Life”
New experiments
“This album is very influenced by electronic music and ‘Moonwaves’, the ambient disc that I made almost at the same time with Bernard Trontin. It’s very interesting to work in both directions because each work feeds the other. I really like to alternate the pop and electro universes and I think that ‘Gummy’ also does it a lot”, explains to the RTS the singer who finally felt ripe for new experiments and even to produce her fifth recording herself. same.
>> To read also: Anna Aaron and Bernard Trontin explore the dark side of the moon
“It took me time to learn how to program the machines, to manage the synthesizers. At the time, I favored the more classic pop structures with verses, refrains and lyrics. This time I wanted to let myself the freedom to work in a more experimental way, to be able to sometimes deconstruct pieces or to consider the creative process differently. This is new for me, but exciting”.
>> To see: the clip of “Golden Boy”
Hybrid dimension of “Gummy”
If some titles of “Gummy” were thus written on the piano, as usual with Anna Aaron, other pieces were initiated by singing only, before taking new directions thanks to drum machines and synthesizers. Which also explains this hybrid dimension of the album that we feel torn between two worlds when it does not welcome them directly within the same song. Without diminishing the dynamics and the emotional intensity of the repertoire.
Olivier Horner
Anna Aaron, “Gummy” (Hummus Records).
Anna Aaron in concert at the Usine à Gaz, Nyon, on November 26th as part of the Hummus Festival organized by her label, with among others Emilie Zoé, Louis Jucker and Baby Volcano.