Aga Ujma

“Ujma conjures a variety of cosmic emotions that feel like they are calling from an ancient and forgotten place.” The Line of Best Fit

 “It’s magical, with a twist of the sinister. It’s proper fairy music – not the Disney-stained, fluffy, floaty stuff – the kind that fair haired children would hear just before being taken by the Tylwyth Teg, never to be seen again.” God Is In The TV

“one of the most beautiful compositions we've encountered in a very long time.” The Most Radicalist

Announcing news of an intimate London show at Camberwell’s Longfield Hall , Polish-born, London-based experimental-folk artist Aga Ujma shares the title track from upcoming EP 345 - due 15th November via Slow Dance Records (Uma, Saint Jude, The New Eves).

Featuring Polish counting games, toybox textures, traditional Indonesian instruments and spates of harsh noise, ‘345’ exists in the hinterland between waking and dreaming; sumptuous melodies and twinkling harps vye with the tensions of an unpredictable, constantly-shifting musical landscape. Following on from pop-leaning lead single ‘House of Silver’, garnering support from NTS (performing a recent live session) Rough Trade and God Is In The TV, building on backing from The Line of Best Fit, CLASH and Boiler Room,  ‘345’ sits in the most experimental ends of Aga’s oeuvre, as she explains:

“345 is a song-collage. It was written while falling in and out of sleep, and it is not certain which parts of it are a dream and which are reality. The Lyrics are confessing feelings about a crush so intense that you are in physical pain, weaving in a Polish counting-out game that I sing while doing my invoices and references to my favourite sci-fi movies that I was watching at the time: Annihilation and Stalker. It was recorded in various locations and I hope that the listener can feel as if I am taking them by the hand and leading them through a cabinet of curiosities.”

Co-produced by Joel Burton (Naima Bock, Morgan Noise)  - alongside Aga herself - and mixed by Joe Futak (Tapir!, The Howl and the Hum), upcoming EP 345, a collection of songs written while cycling around London, or hiking along Polish mountains or Indonesian Volcanoes.

Singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Aga Ujma grew up in Poland raised on a diet of folk music from the mountain village where her mother was raised. Signing herself up a music school while only 8 years old to study classical piano and musical theory, Aga became obsessed with Gamelan music. Moving to Java in her twenties to study traditional music and sing at the Indonesian Institute of Arts, she joined an experimental music collective and toured extensively around the Indonesian archipelago. Drawing influence along the way from her studies in Renaissance and Baroque Music, her fascinations with punk and noise, and a contemporary-folk palette of Björk, Eivør, Múm and CocoRosie - Aga released her debut EP Songs of Innocence and Experience in 2021.

Supporting Crack Cloud, Black Country, New Road and Hinako Omori on tour in shows across UK, Europe and Asia - in addition to one-off London supports for Marina Herlop, Arooj Aftab, June McDoom, Kelly Moran and Damsel Elysium - she has also performed with members of Caroline and black midi during a free improvisation performance at Southbank Centre, as well as alongside Shovel Dance Collective during their free folk/a capella nights.

Aga has also worked far beyond the indie/alternative space. Writing and performing the theme song for 2011’s Resident Evil: Village, Aga’s extensive knowledge of gamelan has lead to a performances at Hyde Park with the Southbank Gamelan Players (commissioned by Boiler Room and Serpentine Gallery), a collaboration with renowned Indonesian composer Iwan Gunawan, as well as reworking and live performance of a film soundtrack for “My Bodily Remains…” by Tai Shani at the Southbank Centre.

“345 is a collection of experimental pop songs by Aga Ujma, written singing out loudly while:

(1)riding on motorcycles,

(2)cycling on lime bikes,

(3)hiking in Polish mountains and Indonesian volcanoes.

Aga accompanies herself with:

(1)a prepared harp,

(2)toys,

(3)a ship-like East Indonesian zither called a sasando, and

(4)a percussive brassy shimmer of a xylophone called a gender barung that belongs in the gamelan ensemble.

Aga’s vocal experiments extend from:

(1)pop runs to

(2)whistle tones, from

(3)whispering into your ears to

(4)screaming from the top of her chest, all garnished with

(5)stacked harmonies.

Lyrics, written while falling in and out of sleep, examine: (1)dancing with ghosts, (2)courage, (3)cowards, (4)finding and losing homes, (5)wet dreams, (6)Tarkovsky, (7)spending time with your inner child, (8)desperately and unsuccessfully trying to follow the thread of your own dreams (9)dealing with snake people, (10)paying invoices, (11)waking up in unexpected places, (12)peas.”