Ana Roxanne to release second album, Because Of A Flower, on November 13th via Kranky

The sublime songs comprising Los Angeles-based musician Ana Roxanne‘s second release, Because Of A Flower, germinated gradually across five years, inspired by interwoven notions of gender identity, beauty and cruelty. She describes her process as beginning with “a drone element and a mood,” then intuiting melody, syllables and lyrics incrementally, like sacred shapes materialising from mist. The experience of identifying as intersex informs the album on levels both sonic and thematic, from spoken word texts borrowed from tonal harmony textbooks to cinematic dialogue samples and castrati aria allusions. It’s an appropriately interstitial vision of ambient songcraft, a chemistry of wisps and whispers, sanctuary and sorrow, conjured through a fragile balance of voice, bass, space, and texture.

Despite a background studying at the prestigious Mills College, in Oakland, Roxanne’s music rarely feels conceptual, instead radiating an immediate and emotive aura, rooted in the present tense of her personal journey. She speaks of the flower in the title as a body, singular and sunlit, as many petals as thorns, an enigma beholden only to itself. But whether taken as surface or subtext, Because Of A Flower is a transfixing document of a rare artist in the spring of their ascension.

Because Of A Flower will release on November 13th via Kranky. Physical and digital pre-orders are available here.

Photo credit: Rich Lomibao