Columbia News Updates

New York – Just a week ago, millions turned their eyes upward to witness the once-in-a- lifetime total solar eclipse. Watching the moon positioned itself between the Earth and the sun, in a rare alignment transforming a bright midday into twilight. In that brief pause lasting approximately four minutes– a remarkable, awe-struck moment went unnoticed. A divided America and the world came together in four short minutes of unity. Such an event could inspire the best artists, poets, and creators alike to a round table of iconic creativity. If only we had more than four minutes. While the music world debates the attention span of their listeners into a two-minute song. There is no doubt, the same awe-struck resonance in the power of music can still create that same sense of unity.

Enters the 5:15 minute song ‘Airbender Alone’ by musician/songwriter Anjalts that drops April 19. A song that borders between Alternative Pop, Rock, and Soul, and is marked by some sultry ethereal vocals, heavy-hitting drums, improvised piano forte, and layered underneath with some distant rock guitars in alternating parts instead of a bass track. Anjalts signature pop-rock odyssey of emotive vocals and open narrative about “young online relationships in a fast-paced world’ rivals against a digital age of disconnect. The song’s synth opening alone brings in that transformation almost like a question-and-answer conversation between the musician, the instruments, and all the emotions built into Anjalts’ sound.

Listening to most of the singles released so far from her sophomore album project ‘Bluency’ unveils the entire narrative in a complete collection of 15 songs set to launch June 14.

“If you talk to Anjalts, she will say how difficult it was mixing the different takes she did for the electric guitars for this track,” says Acen Sinclair, studio engineer at IXO Music, a small artist development label that has joined forces with Anjalts to release her vault of songs. “It’s like balancing out the overdone effects of today, the loud decibels found in final mixes to the basic rudiments of the song,” continues Acen. “I’m having to re-learn my engineering for each song this artist brings in because music was never meant to be like some same cookie cutter formula that would work for everything,” adds Sinclair. “Eclipsing the way a song is produced by today’s standard, into the way the artist originally composed it, with all its pitchy, raw, rebellious inflections and refining it all in the final mix.” “Airbender Alone” was mastered at the iconic Abbey Roads Studio in London.

For this rising star, a little goes a long way. Leveraging prodigious skill as a producer, a multi-instrumentalist, and a singer/songwriter while preserving a quiet mystique-like aura around this reclusive artist is another story. With a furor for privacy and independence, Anjalts chooses to be defined by her music regardless of genre and has so far cultivated a multidimensional style that cannot be confined to a single box.