LAFAWNDAH

Lafawndah’s journey to her current incarnation as a devotional pop

polymath has wound as unpredictably as her compositional style. From a
childhood spent under the tutelage of legendary percussion instructor
Aderfi Aksil through to her controversial tenure at the short- lived but
influential Dassin Sakina Institute, Lafawndah’s traversing of musical
and artistic milieus has been defined by a freedom of tone, surrealist
sense of space, and assured manipulation of formal and psychological 
tension.

After two acclaimed, self- directed music videos (Tan and Ally),
Lafawndah has continued to tour internationally, where her live shows
have become an ever- evolving testing ground for ruptures in the
seamless concert experience, pitting committed humour against relentless
physicality. Her ongoing relationship with filmmakers Partel Oliva has
generated a cinematic body of work where a shared fascination with the
counterpoints between music, body, space has paved a new lane for moving
image and song. Most recently, this collaboration has resulted in Le
Renard Bleu, an album and and companion film made with legendary
composed Midori Takada. Further, Lafawndah’s HONEY COLONY mixtape series
has put the full extent of her dense, baroque, maximalist production
and arrangement style on display, drawing thrilling new potentials from
fellow travellers Klein, Bonnie Banane, Kelsey Lu, and Kelela.

In these inversions and re-imaginings (alongside recent new live
material), one can trace the influence of artists such as Meredith Monk,
Carlos Sara, and Andy Kaufman as much as musical antecedents AR
Rahmann, Missy Elliott, or Geinoh Yamashirogumi, all while feeling and
sounding only like herself. Uniting these projects and sounds is an
overarching widescreen vision, saturated and bracing, sensual and 
imposing.