"The sorrow carves deeper into your being, the more joy you can believe it," it says in Khalil Gibran. The music on "Convergence", the sensual, pain-filled album, the singer-songwriter Malia has taken in just over three years with Boris Blank of Yello, this realization makes tangible. The eleven songs of this intense and inspired production whose title is best translated into German as "convergence" are about life and survival. There are hymns full of tragic moments and dramatic findings, they tell of ghosts, prostitution, slavery, disease, spirituality and of course love. They are as light as profound, as wise as simplistic, and often simultaneously.
Open Malia speaks about the events and emotions that inspired her new album. "When I started to work with Boris, I had just gotten the diagnosis of breast cancer. Meanwhile, I had constantly and repeatedly treatments. Both breasts were amputated. However, the worst was the thought of not being there for my now six year old daughter to. She has given me a lot of strength and me no choice left, in a sense: they needed me, so I could not possibly die. Music has always given me strength, so I've thrown myself more after diagnosis more into my music - and took up in the middle of working with Boris still "Black Orchid" ". Malia's much lauded label debut "Black Orchid" from the year 2012 - for this album she received the Echo Jazz Award in 2013 - was devoted to the work of Nina Simone.
Malia met the musician and producer Boris Blank 2010 through a friend. She wanted to stretch out their feelers in the direction of "electro scene" as she calls it. The "Zurich sound fanatics and studio tinkerer" (Der Spiegel), who had already worked in the course of the success story of Yello with Shirley Bassey and Billie McKenzie, recognized in the character's voice and the charisma of the singer a wonderful addition to his clear tone. "I need to feel something in the joints and marrow, to listen to it with the heart," says the singer and praises this way, even this intuitive and very direct cooperation. "Boris's music has made it my easy, musical, lyrically and melodically to go on the trip. Its production caresses me with sound, he creates moods, guides me, like a director would do it in a movie and gives me a sense of security and space. Our cooperation was very direct. If something does not come by itself, we have not stepped up -., And continued with the next "
The music on "Convergence" is clearly electronic, voice organically. "Maybe it's soul, in the sense that this music comes from the soul," says Malia. "For me, the roots of these pieces go even further back, to gospel and blues - they are as direct as honest." Above all, a lot of spirituality in this music and put a "deep respect for life and humanity" as Malia puts it. As "non-religious sermons" she recognizes some of the songs, even more so as "journeys", which ultimately only provisionally translated as "Travel".
Already the opener "Celestial Echo" contrasting dark drums and cutting synth sounds with warm pads and this incomparable harsh voice. "I'll hold your hand, your love, and your secrets near / I'll dry your eyes, Those tears, I'm the mad storyteller," Malia sings, thereby defining the intimacy and narrative levels of the album before. Often these stories about hope and sensuality, as in "Claire Cadillac", an ode to a transsexual "escort", which met Malia in her hometown years ago. "I found them mesmerizing, gorgeous, lively," says Malia. "Once when I visited a customer rang. I was almost panicked and did not know where I should flee. She only said: "Stop being such a baby. I'll be right back, "Ten minutes later she put seven large bills on the table and said:". And it's all tax free "" Unbeatable, right? "Sometimes Malia texts are associative and poetic, as in the spoken-word piece. "Smouldering Ashes" or "Embraceable Moon", a love song as only a mother can sing. "I can sing only reassuring," says Malia, especially in contrast to many colleagues who, however, often seem hyperactive. "I probably sing too many lullabies. But I love to sing lullabies; they calm a ... "Elsewhere, the ideas are conveyed very directly about the passionate" Magnetic Lies ", the energetic electronic rhythm and blues-groove of" I Feel It Like You "or their legendary version of" Fever, "the only cover of the album. In "Turner's Ship" was a painting by JMW Turner called "The Slave Ship" about the tragedy and the greed of the slave trade Godfather. The idea that these painters middle of the 19th century, the cruelty and falsehood of slavery and therefore denounced this "incredible paintings created", moving Malia. "However," explains Malia, "I had written a poem on this subject and when I heard this composition by Boris the words added to the easy one. It's Boris' thanks to music that it was this song. "
"Convergence" is chock full of snapshots that are made for eternity. As modern as it is timeless, this electronic soul music has the potential to make profound happy. "I dive into this music as one in a dance," said Malia. "If you make too many worries or thoughts while dancing one is stiff - and it is not a good dance. To be, today and live in the moment only here - that means everything to me. "
"The press release is directly translated from the German press release"