ANA QUIROGA - AZABACHE
Houndstooth
LP
2023
Azabache is a deeply personal project from London-based music composer, producer and sound designer Ana Quiroga. Cinematic, experimental and firmly rooted in place, family, and heritage, Azabache is Ana’s first electronic solo album under the artist’s birth name and a monumental piece of personal work. Predominantly crafted in Ana's home studio in Hackney, East London, Azabache blends field recordings with digital and analog instruments. These forces craft a final product that strikes a deliberate balance between the ethereal and organic, and a forward-thinking take on futuristic sound technology.
Hailing from Mieres, Asturias in northern Spain, Ana negotiates location and home throughout the project. As well as its innovative elements, Azabache is at its heart an enchanting album that explores themes of magic and ritual that have been with Ana since childhood. Rooting it all, the album’s title comes from the “azabache stone”, which while originated in the Jurassic period is still found in Ana’s homeland of Asturias in Spain and current home, England. In Ana's beloved homeland, the stone holds great significance in folk traditions as an emblem of protection. This symbol, which has accompanied Ana since her youth, serves as a central theme of her debut album.
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A personal odyssey, shaped both by Ana’s deep connection to her homeland and her experience since moving to London, underpins Azabache. Location and family root the narrative of the tracks; it works like a sonic ritual and a homage to the inner strength of the self, ancestral ties, folk customs, and sacred charms. Azabache is also a tribute to Ana's two grandmothers; magical in their own right and a continued source of inspiration for Ana.
Taking the listener through experimental, ambient soundscapes, drone techno and industrial, synth-based sonics, Ana works to emphasize the significance of magick in self-discovery and the exploration of the extraordinary within what feels like a timeless sonic realm. Azabache blends organic sound recordings with synthesizers, energetic drums, and drones, merge with Ana's distinct and captivating vocals. From the rich Celtic heritage of Asturias – the mines, minerals, and mystical feminine energy – to the urban occultism of their now-home London and the enchanting streets of Hackney and the East End, Azabache embodies the connection between deep and highly symbolic ancestral roots and these contemporary new beginnings.
In a captivating fusion, the album brings together contrasting elements, just like how the natural landscapes, majestic mountains, and untamed sea of Asturias are intertwined with a rich industrial heritage. Sci-fi technology, drone techno influences, and dark distorted sounds converge with the enchanting themes of folklore, witchcraft, and mysticism, creating a bewildering paradox of machine-like precision (representing the scientific and the proven) and the ethereal world of magic itself. This intriguing juxtaposition blends the tangible and the intangible, offering a unique sonic experience that blurs the boundaries between the natural and the industrial, the technological and the mystical.
'Isn't it gorgeous?'
(Mary Anne Hobbs - BBC Radio 6)
'Stupendously dark, gothic-electronic'
(Joe Muggs - The Best Electronic Music on Bandcamp)
'Quiroga’s tones and textures, have a craggy, mineral quality, stony and glinting'
(Philip Sherburne - Futurism Restated)
'A collection of ancient incantations'
(Shawn Reynaldo - First Floor)
'It is a non-linear story, full of subplots and spells that illuminate her person and all the muses that in the form of sound have taken shape'
(Aïda Camprubí - Rockedelux)
'Enigmatic, cinematic and conceptual. A ritual that leaves a mark'
(Bruno Garca - DJ Mag Spain)
CREDITS
Written, composed, produced and pre-mixed by Ana Quiroga Olavarrieta
Mixed by Paul Corley
Mastered & cut by Matt Colton at Metropolis, London
Wallada: Bass guitar by Chris Norrish. Additional vocals by Catalina Barceló
Inner City Light: Written in collaboration with Gorka Molero. Bass and backing vocals by Gorka Molero. Dolby Atmos mix by Acid Roots
© Original Artwork by Estela Oliva
Graphic Design by John Philip Sage
℗ & © 2023 Houndstooth