Annakin – Icarus Heart (English version)

The Irish magazine Image titles Annakin the discovery of the month and calls her “a major star waiting to happen … glacial, majestic and somewhat glorious.” Back home in Switzerland she is already well known as the great diva of Trip Hop.
Her compelling third album “Icarus Heart” is an eclectically artful mixture of electronic sounds, marching drums and delicately applied strings, and the beauty of her voice just carries you away. The eleven tracks are ...

Annakin – Icarus Heart (English version)

The Irish magazine Image titles Annakin the discovery of the month and calls her “a major star waiting to happen … glacial, majestic and somewhat glorious.” Back home in Switzerland she is already well known as the great diva of Trip Hop.
Her compelling third album “Icarus Heart” is an eclectically artful mixture of electronic sounds, marching drums and delicately applied strings, and the beauty of her voice just carries you away. The eleven tracks are a touch rougher than the ones on her previous two albums and extremely well arranged by her English producers Jono Buchanan and Dimitri Tikovoï. The latter is well known for his productions for Placebo, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Archive. When Annakin contacted his management they said to her: „Dimitri is pretty snowed under but he loves your songs and would like to work with you!“ Soon after that, Annakin adjourned to the legendary „Assault & Battery“ studios to create three magnificient songs with him. Both, Dimitri’s and Jono’s productions complement one another very well and the two brilliantly understood how to weave the right sound around Annakin’s voice and to flirt with her darkly melancholic and yet profoundly beautiful songwriting.

„Icarus Heart“ contains ten original compositions and a cover version of the Pet Shop Boys’ hymn „It’s a Sin“. Annakin grew up with this song and due to its catchy melody and the strong lyrics it has never let go of her since. Immediately, it was very clear for Annakin that her interpretation of that song would not be in the Pop genre, but in either one of the extremes: metal or classical. So, Buchanan and herself went for an orchestral-electronic remake of the Lowe/Tennant hit, which goes deeply under the skin.

With the music video for the radio single „The Trooper“ Annakin and the director Christian Ammann – with whom she has won several international prices for the recent clip „Alive“ – have created gorgeous visual material. In her video, Annakin dances in a surreal parachute robe and wears designer outfits created by Tim Ryan and John Rocha. She conveys and intermingles these with monumental Icelandic landscapes using her gracile dancing and her beautiful voice.

Be it during the songwriting process, in the studio or during the video shoot, Annakin is only entirely satisfied with the result, when it feels like a breakthrough. That is when the lyrics still move her the next day, when the arrangements put a smile on her face and when it feels excellent to be dancing on a steep, rocky hill in the icelandic cold. She conserves these emotions and takes them with her on stage in order to become one again with her songs.

And now, oh play that thing again and again!