LiAEN

It‘s spring in the year 2021, and for what feels like an eternity the Covid 19 pandemic has dominated everyday life, the news, simply everything – and also our understanding of art, music and a shared experience of sound and words and stories.

It would be far too short to reduce LiAN‘s debut to the time of its creation, but when the Nuremberg based artist sings about the desolate status quo in „Real House of Nowhere“ stating “I’m wearing a mask cause we meet at the park“, it becomes clear that her experimental pop does not take place in a hermetically sealed space, but rather picks up personal impressions and experiences. The whole thing sounds minimalist and airy in some parts, doing so in the opener „Dear Momo“, and in others like a dense ambient noise („Abr-u Bād“). There are big pop gestures that open up a whole world of references right away. „Jasmin, a Rockstar“ would have suited Lana Del Rey in times of „Ultraviolence“ quite well, „Badminton“ develops from a kind of bedroom gospel to a The-Knife-like-soundscape and the nonchalance of „Cityroller > E-Scooter“ cannot be ignored. What the sometimes sketchy, sometimes detailed songs all have in common are the clear, layered vocal arrangements and the intimate, but never mundane lyrics. They describe everyday situations, dialogues, wishes and paradoxically sound introverted and self-confident at the same time.

While „Featuring Pascal‘s Skateboard“ may have a certain melancholy, the album above all is a playground of ideas and a personal album that ignores pop expectations and genre boundaries. In its wealth of ideas and its joy of experimentation, it reminds us that there is still a whole lot to discover out there in the skate park, at the party, in the gym, in the subway and in nature.