Buy link: lnk.to/ACID-FLORA_Leaving_ATribeCalledKotori
Up next on A Tribe Called Kotori is a special record. Born in times of separation and confusion, ‘Leaving’ is the maiden studio effort from on-the-rise Swiss producer Acid Flora, a most promising artist whose name shall ring a bell to those familiar with the seminal Swiss club, Hive – where she operates as a resident, and the likes of Kater Blau. Taking a cue from her personal life, this all-digi debut single weaves an intricate narrative arc, combining streamlined yet organic flows of Janus-faced moodscapes and momentums. As she envelopes us into a captivating sonic jungle of sorts, AF finds a graceful though brittle balance between melancholy and that burning desire to turn obstacles into unsuspected springboards, squeezing the vital juice out of such trying situations to magnify a soul-fulfilling contrast of colors and tempi.
Spanning the width of her influences, from Middle Eastern folk to African polyrhythms, ‘Leaving’ is a way for Acid Flora to translate these feelings of grief and relief into actual bars of music for the club and not. From the hi-voltage tension of the buildup, up until that longed-for release, she takes us on a mesmeric journey, bathed in a hazy mystique of its own, readily hopping “from anger to disappointment, then to release and relief” as we follow her down that redemptive path with our heads in the clouds and feet deeply rooted in the ground. In her own admission a “challenging track” emotionally, ‘Back and Forth’ swings the pendulum between two mindsets completely. Processing that palette of contradictory feelings through surgical engineering of skittish drum work, FX-riddled synth lines, and thoroughly immersive sound design. A slice of kosmische-indebted piano house undulating halfway esoteric boogie and raucous EBM menace from beneath. Back and forth, right, but always dead ahead.
Release date: September 29th, 2023.