Pop polymath deals a debut doozy
Who?
Brandenburg-born Atka may be new on the scene, but her unique form of emotive electronic art-pop feels like the work of a time-worn veteran. Released this month, her debut EP ‘The Eye Against The Ashen Sky’ is replete with modular and analogue synths, bold sound design and guitars. In fact, it was written while Atka, who is now living in London, was completing her Master’s in philosophy, (focusing on French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of “the gaze”). Add to that her formative influences of Joy Division and Kraftwerk and you’re in the right ballpark.
Why Atka?
If you like weighty philosophy delivered with aplomb then you need look no further. ‘Desiring Machines’ is the first single from her EP and refers to the books ‘Anti-Oedipus’ and ‘A Thousand Plateaus’ by French thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, each of which explores how the body is experienced as an object through the male gaze. Atka says she is particularly preoccupied with Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of “the rhizome” – a network of multiplicities which has no centre and which doesn’t start from or end anywhere, but grows from everywhere simultaneously.
Tell Us More…
Still with me? Good. Atka’s music’s weighty worldliness is partly hewn from her own travels and life experience. Having grown up in a tiny German village, she moved to Australia’s Gold Coast as a teenager, then to the mountains of Squamish, Canada, before eventually settling in the UK. Something of a polymath, she once had her sights set on a career in sustainability research and politics before pivoting into filmmaking and directing several shorts. Atka then made her way back to music, first as a journalist, penning pieces for Rolling Stone, Groove, Musikexpress and others. Only now is she finally launching into the bona fide artist life. And trust me – we’re all the better for it.
‘The Eye Against The Ashen Sky’ is out via Bandcamp
