Aga Ujma

“transports you someplace else entirely…There’s something distinctively cathartic about “345,” how its gentleness bows into this piercing, noisy conclusion that unravels spritely into a ghostly, threaded dream.” PASTE Magazine

" a singular voice in London’s music scene" Hard of Hearing

“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

Ahead of an intimate London headline at Camberwell’s Longfield Hall, and upcoming shows with Tapir! And Shovel Dance Collective, Polish-born, London-based experimental-folk artist Aga Ujma shares sophomore EP 345 - out now (15th) via Slow Dance Records (Uma, Saint Jude, The New Eves).

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

Drawing inspiration from her studies of Gamelan music at the Indonesian Institute of Arts, her studies in Renaissance and Baroque Music, as well as her fascinations with punk, noise, and a contemporary-folk palette of Björk,  Eivør, Múm and CocoRosie - Aga’s latest collection comes off the back of tours with Black Country, New Road and Crack Cloud, a live session on NTS earlier this month, and press support from PASTE, Rough Trade, The Line Of Best Fit, CLASH, Songlines, Hard of Hearing, God Is In the TV and The Most Radicalist.

Offering insight into the EP’s abstract lyrical content, Aga explains: “The lyrics were 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.”

More about Aga Ujma:

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.

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.

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.