(MPG) Paris-based singer/songwriter ALA.NI released "Ton Amour," the third single off of Sunshine Music out on September 19 via No Format Records. The song pairs a reggaeton-tinged backdrop with jazz vocals and pop melodies to create an almost-menacing sonic landscape. This follows recent single "This Is Why," an introspective bossa nova number portraying the conflict of a new relationship, and comes with a visually stunning music video, shot in Port Royal, Jamaica, and directed by ALA.NI herself.
When asked about the origins of "Ton Amour," ALA.NI said, "This song mixes two lovers: a kind of Belgian Brad Pitt, and someone I met in Jamaica who behaved in a very disturbing way. I was on the beach with a friend, upset, trying to understand what had happened-how this person had emotionally trapped me and found pleasure in my distress. The situation was clearly becoming dangerous. I don't want to point fingers at Jamaica, but unfortunately, the rate of femicide there is one of the highest in the world. I knew I had to leave; at least this experience led to a song."
Written in the throes of a frigid Paris winter, Sunshine Music hums with the memory of the heat of her two and a half year sojourn in Barbados, Grenada and Jamaica. The album stitches together a tapestry of influences from calypso, jazz, bossa nova and the great postwar songbook, threaded together by ALA.NI's singular voice and sensibility. The artist also reaches outwards into broader political territory: calling for reparations, confronting the legacy of colonial theft and weaving personal experience into cautionary tales about narcissism and survival.
Born to Grenadian parents and raised in London, ALA.NI comes from a storied musical background, her great-uncle being Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchison, an infamous cabaret icon of the pre-WWII era. Since emerging with her debut You & I in 2016 - a self-produced set of exquisitely restrained torch songs that earned her a performance on Later... with Jools Holland and a Tiny Desk Concert - ALA.NI has built a reputation as a distinctive voice beyond easy classification. Her 2020 follow-up ACCA layered beatbox and vocal textures into dense, intricate arrangements, drawing contributions from figures like LaKeith Stanfield and Iggy Pop and earning acclaim from Associated Press, NYLON, The FADER and many more. Along the way, she has collaborated and performed with artists as diverse as Mary J. Blige, Blur, Nitin Sawhney, Andrea Bocelli, Chassol and Jon Batiste.
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