Half Waif

In the deep Upstate New York winter of 2022, trees bare and taunting, Nandi Rose found herself searching for an apricitic clarity. She has always found the season difficult; its ruthless theft of birdsong and flora, heavy clouds low and smothering what little light remains. But the cacophonous silence of that winter was particularly brutal. It should have been stirred by the growth of life, a promise of a new chapter, a bright dawn, as Rose learned she was pregnant with her first child. That promise was broken in early December, when stillness took over the ultrasound screen; slow-motion mouths told her the life inside her had ended. Like a snapped branch weighed down by leaden frost, Rose lost a part of her future she thought would blossom.

See You At The Maypole was originally intended as a departure from the darker works of Half Waif. Whereas 2021’s Mythopoetics dealt with familial traumas and the patterns we carry with us, Rose––armed with the anticipation of planning her own family––envisioned a new collection of soft and joyous odes to motherhood, and to new beginnings. That writing sparked in the summer of 2021 at a solo retreat in the Catskills, as melodies formed in a small cabin overlooking a luscious and rain-rippled pond. A month later, Rose found out she was pregnant and anticipated nine months of writing through a new, maternal lens, speckled with the verdure of certainty. But when that soundless morning arrived in December, See You At The Maypole took on a new life. One that would seize the uncomfortable reigns of uncertainty.

NOIA

Structured to unfold like a dream, the debut album by NOIA combines an array of languages – Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, English – and traditional sounds from her childhood in southwestern Europe to process her personal transformations over the past two years while living between NYC and Barcelona.

Gisela Fullà-Silvestre formed the alias NOIA to create separation between her profession as a celebrated composer and mix engineer for film and TV, and her experimental pop productions. After graduating from Berklee in 2015, the Barcelona-bred artist relocated to Brooklyn and started writing music that channeled her early attachments to sound, which were formed osmotically as a child in the home of her activist parents. Shortly thereafter, she released her inaugural EP, Habits, which was a lush, romantic affair anchored by singles “Nostalgia Del Futuro” and “Itaca Tropical.” NOIA played shows across North America and Europe, and embedded herself deeply into NYC’s creative community. 2019 then saw the release of her second EP, Crisalida, a Catalan word for “cocoon,” that expanded on her international references to mine an increasingly leftfield palette. Dancehall and tropicalia radio fused with R&B and glitchy sound design to create an utterly placeless sonic world.