Olicía – Kleine Töne [digital]

“Like the individually woven threads of a canvas on which chalk paint has been rubbed, the different parts lead into one another and blend into a structure of their own, which is new to us but nevertheless familiar,” Fama M’Boup says about Olicía’s collaboration with the abstract painter Claudia Kleiner. Indeed, this collaboration, despite the obvious difference in art form and creation, seems almost like a “comfort zone” to both parties. Claudia Kleiner’s abstract, thickly textured paintings are created with great precision in a time-consuming process and they often adhere to strict geometrical forms balancing clarity and emotion, precision and liveliness. All this could also be said of Olicía’s loop-based song creations.

The song opens with a spoken word passage in German: a poem on the process of creating or perceiving a work of art, blurring the line between sounds and colors in an almost dreamlike manner.  Anna-Lucia describes the origins of the lyrics as follows: “’Kleine Töne’ is like a reversal of direction, a retrospective of sorts. Where do wecome from? Where does creativity start, where lies the spark, the first heartbeat? Is there a pool in which the unborn ideas and inventions float before they creep into our consciousness? The empty canvas, the step back to the origin, a pathway to the core by peeling off layer by layer.”

Claudia Kleiner’s work process in her paintings often leads from the end to the beginning. By putting layer upon layer onto the canvas but also taping or covering certain aereas, the observer can see into the layers below. “It’s like she is creating little windows into the previous worlds,” Anna-Lucia says. “We tried to do the same thing in music and lyrics, melodies and words that surface become fragmented and deconstructed and flow back together into something bigger and new. Fragments of voices and samples of noises like a brief flash of something that used to be.”

Kleine Töne

Song by Olicía

04:02 min

Anna-Lucia Rupp – vocals, samples and snippets

Fama M’Boup – vocals, vocal bass, vocal percussion, piano, samples and snippets

Written and recorded by Olicía

Mixed by Jakob Hegner, mastered by Bernhard Range

℗ + © 2024 by o-cetera, o-cetera.com, o-cetera006

2024

OUT OF THE BLUE is be 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.