It starts between the eyes
Electronic-folk group ANIMA! has big intentions
ARIELLE VAKNI and Vicente Espi of alternative-electronic duo, ANIMA!, are in f**k-it mode. The album-in-progress whirling beneath their fingers is a reflection of the past few years’ different energies and personal tragedies. Vakni lost her childhood home in Santa Cruz. Espi lost his father. Then there was all that staying at home.
So, now, a bit more electric guitar and a bit more “crunchiness” than past EPs, which make you wanna drop what you’re doing and have a dance party with the bright, zinging beats. (Think: Sylvann Esso or Little Dragon). Now, less concept, less cohesion. A yin-yang between sampling and synthesis.
“It’s like macaroni music,” said 35-year-old Espi with a big ‘ole smile. “You try it and see what sticks. I personally like albums that aren’t too stuck in one sound. To break it up with new approaches.”
The two have been collaborating from worlds apart. Vakni, 30, is in Taos, renovating the Earthship she inherited from her great-uncle, Kenny Young — the writer of the famous tune “Under the Boardwalk” and a longtime musician in and around our little mountain town. (Some of the revamped space is dedicated to a music studio and an outdoor venue. Vakni calls this project Weird Bird Music).
PLAYLIST By Arielle Christian
Espi is in his homelands of South Africa, where he grew up under the bow of a family of string musicians. He sends over beat inspirations to Vakni between mastering soundscapes for companies such as Mercedes and Apple. The two regularly meet via video call.
Because of issues with international artist visas, they haven’t been able to play live together in four years. Which leaves Vakni to do solo sets at Revolt Gallery, or pair with their Brooklynbased
drummer, Roddy Galli, for video releases — one of which went down on the wide-open sagebrush-everywhere mesa last year.
Despite this challenge, Vakni and Espi — both vegans who grew up by the ocean, and who consider themselves relentless perfectionists — trust the road.
“You see the first step. For us, it’s to get enough revenue to tour. Write the next good song. Then other steps present themselves from there. We just have to believe that it’s possible,” said Vakni, whose Deadhead upbringing transferred into experimental electronic listening (Radiohead, for instance) in high school.
A lot of ANIMA!’s music hits on this theme. The power of intention. Like in the song “Ear to Ear” from their 2019 album, Grow Your Garden, which is a foot-mover full of Espi’s charango (a string folk instrument from South America), and the idea that — with full dedication and desire — you can make your own reality. Vakni sings in her crystal sharp frequency, “You send waves through the air / Thought by thought, prayer by prayer.”
It’s how Espi got to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, which is where he met Vakni around 2011. Vakni appreciated Espi’s all-things-technical production skills. Espi was drawn to Vakni’s sincere and folky voice. Through the years and the distance: the honesty through the music.
“I sing for the way it feels,”Vakni said. “I feel it and don’t edit it or judge it.”
No matter the expression of sound.
‘I sing for the way it feels.
I feel it and don’t edit it or judge it.’
ARIELLE VAKNI ANIMA!