Alexia Avina has spent the past decade exploring the boundaries of folk music, with the NYC-based experimentalist increasingly leaning into influences that hardly overlap with the sonic ideas at the core of her sound. And while her latest EP zen and hot (yes, in this economy) opens with a fairly traditional recording pairing her yearning vocals with acoustic guitar strums, things (spoiler) take a bit of an electronic turn over the course of the following three songs. “Flower,” the third track which is arriving today, begins as a nearly ambient composition that veers into synthpop territory explored by fellow avant-folk figure Jenny Hval.
Yet it’s a different Scandinavian muse Avina cites as the song’s primary inspiration. “At the time of writing ‘Flower,’ I was finally getting into Björk,” she explains. “When I listened to Vespertine two years ago, I finally understood why everyone assumed I would be a huge fan of hers. ‘Cocoon’ is, in my opinion, one of the greatest and sweetest love songs ever written. I was inspired to write a song informed by its compositional and production choices, but the meaning veered in a different direction. Instead of encapsulating the wonder of truly loving, it confronts the reality of a situation where two desires are oppositional in nature, underpinned by a yearning for greater depth.”
zen and hot arrives in full on November 15 (you can pre-order that here), but for now you can check out the pensive blip-pop track below.
