From the Series
Track of the Week “La Llorna” is Amy Ayanda’s first offering to the local electrofolk scene, seamlessly produced by Naas Music’s Thor Rixon. Rixon is not new to the music scene. With a track record of collaborating with female talents, having worked with the likes of Beast’s Inge Beckman on “Misery Belle” and Chantel Van T on “Time Away”, it’s no surprise that he captures the kind of atmosphere that Amy, a painter and graduate of Michaelis School of Fine Art, was going for.
“La Llorna” takes its name from a Mexican legend featuring the ghost of a beautiful woman-in-white who drowned her sons in a fit of jealousy. The track tells a dark, murky and troubled story that reverberates effortlessly with every nuance of the duo’s ethereal creation. The legend echoes throughout the song, balancing melodious humming with distorted vocals.
"Amy had written this beautiful song when she was much younger and approached me to work on making it 'more' with her. We recorded the guitar and vocals in an hour or two and I spent the rest of the night working on the production of the track. We spent another year fine-tuning it,” says Rixon.
Behind his scraggly beard and kooky sense of play, it’s easy to imagine the cogs constantly working in this man’s brain. At times stark and icy, at others tepid and dream-like, the aquatic sedation of his music washes through Amy’s melancholic ease. Reminiscent of Gotye, Foster The People and Simon and Garfunkel all at once, with a subtle South African undertone, Amy Ayanda (real name Amy Lester) and Thor Rixon are a formidable pair set to usher us into a new offering of electronic music, and a welcome addition to the talent pool this side of Cape Town’s electro-renaissance.
They perform live at The Side Show on Thursday 26 February as part of Design Indaba Music 2015.
