Olicía – Branches [Digital]

“Branches” is the second work in a series of collaborative singles with artists from other disciplines. It is Olicía’s result of collaborating with woodworker Dshamila Annina who is based in Verscio (CH) and in La Mandria (IT). The song “Branches” sets out as a tender, jazzy folk ballad incorporating wood percussion like falling drops of water. Playfully exploring different sounds and tunings of the percussion instruments created by Dshamila Annina and gently decreasing the level of abstraction over the course of the song, shaping the different sounds into a more concise rhythm by mixing them with claps and ratchet sounds.

The song’s lyrics reach deep into an inner, emotional core. According to Anna-Lucia Rupp, they observe a loved one fading away slowly: “A kind glimpse into their past and the memories you share. Like the image of an oak tree that contains so much history, sunlight and tension within all those annual rings. It is about the awareness of things evolving, of people fading, of time coloring the leaves until they can’t hold onto the branches no longer. That bitter-sweet evanescence…” Co-writing the lyrics, as they often do, Fama M’Boup adds a perspective that transcends the immediate grief and perceives lost ones in your family as the roots enabling yourself to grow and build upon.

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Song by Olicía
3:44 min
Anna-Lucia Rupp – vocals, guitar
Fama M’Boup – vocals, percussion
Written and recorded by Olicía
Mixed by Max Grüner | Mastered by Bernhard Range
℗ + © 2023 by o-cetera, o-cetera.com, o-cetera006
2023

OUT OF THE BLUE is a cycle of songs and corresponding works of art that are born from dialogue – from conversation and exchange between the two musicians in Olicía and artists in other genres, such as painting, fashion, dance, literature, film making, design, or arts and crafts. The works are gradually developed, ping-ponged back and forth, playfully shaped into their final form. Learning and borrowing from one another in the process – adapting strategies, materials, structures, or approaches. From an exchange of ideas and sentiments and their – at times – vague and fuzzy articulations into dots and notes, shapes and chords, textures, patterns, configurations, and designs. In the end, the result will be two separate works of art, existing on equal footing, sharing the same seed, still conversing with one another, complementing one another, or simply exploring the same ideas while venturing out into opposite directions.