New releases

The Wall by Anna Aliena: Don’t mind the language

Have you watched my new music video “Sanjam (Snovi lete)“ yet? It’s the fourth and last track on the brandnew Anna Aliena EP The Wall which was released TODAY! It’s available for download at Amazon, iTunes and other stores. Please don’t mind the language – I sing three of the four tracks in Croatian. You should be used to it by now. The first time I did it was in summer 2015 and somehow I wasn’t able to stop.

Quite a long time I suffered from a severe lack of inspiration. I wasn’t even in the mood to come out with my previous EP Secret Garden. Then I met the ambassador of … and suddenly I felt a strong urge to write the title song “The Wall“ which shall also be featured in a music video this year.

The ambassador between walls

My personal interaction with the ambassador lasted for a while, long enough to empower my creativity. “Ljubav ubija“ (Love kills) tells the outcome of the story of “The Wall“ which deals with invisible walls between people. Sometimes they are too thick to be torn down and sometimes people don’t feel at home “U ovom gradu“ (in this town). As a result they start dreaming of imaginary lovers (“Sanjam“, I’m dreaming) …

The cover of the Anna Aliena EP The Wall

In January, when all the material was composed and recorded, I discovered a picture from my Zagreb adventures. I had taken it at the art park in December and somehow it reminded me of my feelings connected with the ambassador of the country I will not mention: colourful steps between two walls leading to a pair of crying eyes. What’s behind the wall? If you have no connection to the place, you have no idea that the stairs end at Strossmayer Promenade, a romantic patch for lovers I have always walked alone or with friends.

A strange encounter on an airplane

By the way, the story of the Anna Aliena EP The Wall has a peculiar sequel: When I was on an airplane last month, the ambassador was sitting in the row in front of me! Fate or just coincidence? He pretended not to see me, but after landing there was no chance to ignore me any longer. We changed a couple of meaningless words, the representative of the unnamed state blushed and grinned like a little boy from kindergarden. On our way to the terminal he avoided me. At least I will write a song about the incident sometime!

EP cover „The Wall“: a picture from Zagreb art park

This year I’m going to release two EPs – that means nine new Anna Aliena songs! Secret Garden shall make a start on March 26th and The Wall will follow two weeks later. I’ve already revealed the covers on my Soundcloud account. When I showed my artwork for The Wall to my friend Max and to Alex at Planet Earth Studio, stay immediately had associations with the Berlin Wall without knowing each other. They both asked me where I had taken the picture in Berlin. I laughed as I shot the photo by accident at Zagreb art park at the end of last year!

Credits: Anna Aliena / Go!Diva Records

A coincidence at Zagreb art park

EP cover “The wall”

I was enjoying the marvelous Christmas season in the capital of Croatia where I’ve been a lot of times since January 2016. The city has an extremely positive energy which is great for my soul whereas Berlin is just the opposite … The sun was shining brightly on that December afternoon when I was climbing from Ilica, the longest street in Zagreb, to its medieval upper town Gornji Grad. During that little walk I crossed Zagreb art park which is full of colourful street art. On a warm evening in June 2017 there was also a flea market and a small theatre performance at the lower part of the park.

Credits: Anna Aliena / Go!Diva Records

When you ascend, you’ll reach a passage of steep stairs. At the very end of it I managed to catch the cover photo for The Wall though at that point I had no plans to turn it into album art for my music. However, Zagreb art park perfectly fits my forthcoming EP because it contains three songs in Croatian and only one track in English.

Yesterday I returned to the place and took some more pictures. Afterwards I went to Grič tunnel, an amazing bunker tunnel from World War II which is nowadays used as a passage and cultural event space. Right in the middle of it I filmed a video sequence and hopefully I will find more video spots in March. I’ll always be back, destiny gives me no choice!

Alien Pop & Gloomy Sunday FOR FREE at Bandcamp!

I’m still alive and make music! In fact, I’ve never stopped, but for quite a while I didn’t feel like showing myself to the world. Thinking about the future of my musical style and other things, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that music was my first love and will always be. So I’m back again!

During my absence my single Gloomy Sunday (2012) and the EP Alien Pop (2013) have disappeared from the download portals like iTunes, Amazon etc. However, I hadn’t found out before Friday night! Sometimes musicians are naive and during the time of the production I was in touch with a guy from a small net label who published my records without asking for money.

A certain time after the online releases I’ve never heard from him again. He vanished from social media and it wasn’t possible to contact him via email any longer. I haven’t even seen a single cent from download sales!

Nevertheless, Gloomy Sunday and Alien Pop will come back to the stores around February 25th. In the next two weeks I will give you the possibility to get both records at my Bandcamp site – FOR FREE unless you are willing to pay for my work.

Gloomy Sunday: 2 new versions of an old Hungarian song

In 1933 the unknown Budapest bar pianist Rezsö Seress (1899 – 1968) was deserted by his fiancee. Grieving for his lost love, he composed a melancholic melody called “Szomorú Vasárnap“ (Gloomy Sunday) and suddenly became world-famous.

Yet fame had a negative side effect for him because the song inspired numerous listeners to kill themselves and radio stations banned “Gloomy Sunday“ from their programme.

I didn’t use the English translation of László Jávor’s original lyrics like Diamanda Galas, Heather Nova or Björk. In „Gloomy Sunday (Suicide Drive)“ I remember 2009, probably the darkest year of my life. Hysterical synthesizers lead you to the deepest abyss of my soul. Luckily I didn’t fall, but later I committed suicide in my song.

„Gloomy Sunday (Lovers In War)“, the second version on the single, tells the story of a devastating relationship which inspired me to shoot a gloomy video at Beelitz Heilstätten, a former hospital for lung diseases near Berlin. Only the ruins have remained and they look like a battlefield!

Alien Pop: the celebration of a genre

Outer space is much more colourful! On Alien Pop I celebrated extraterrestrial extravagance to the fullest. The first song „Floating In Space“ was a tribute to the great Klaus Nomi who had died 30 years before the release on August 6th, 2013. If you are familiar with his music, you will recognize a few similarities to his song “Total Eclipse“ in the chorus.

On track 5 I honoured a second big idol of mine: Freddie Mercury. Its title “The Show Goes On“ responds to Queen’s “The Show Must Go On“, but it also reflects my own attitude towards music. Well, my music has changed over the year’s, but wouldn’t it be boring to stay the same forever?

Now go to Bandcamp, download the tracks and convince yourself:

https://anna-aliena.bandcamp.com/album/gloomy-sunday
https://anna-aliena.bandcamp.com/album/alien-pop

Serenada EP And Video Out Now

Recently I’ve talked about it in several articles, but yesterday it finally happened: My first classical EP Serenada was released. The album contains seven Croatian songs by Josip Hatze. Apparently I’m the only German singer to arrange and sing this kind of repertoire. What an honour!

Cover of “Serenada”

In March I gave you a first impression of my work: the video of the last track “Suzi”. Last Saturday I filmed another video of the title song “Serenada”. Do you remember under which circumstances I had written the ballad “Tvoje Plave Oči”? In August of last year I provided you with some insights of a night of unfulfilled longing at the Lakes of Plitvice. The lyrics of “Serenada” perfectly fit the emotional state I was captured in. So I made up my mind to show you this episode of my life in the video. To be honest, I didn’t wear such an elegant velvet dress at my hotel room. I also left out the tears which are just as meaningless as the hormones producing the feeling of being in love. In the end only music remains.

Yes, I’m really delighted about the new EP Serenada! It’s my masterpiece, the first record to show you the true abilities of my voice. I’m not sure if I will ever go back to ‘alien pop’. For now I simply know that I will make a video of “Tvoje Plave Oči” in June. Maybe I will be inspired once more in Croatia even though I’m so through with songs about unrequited love! By the way, in the meantime I recorded an English and a French version of that song. The French version “Tes Yeux Bleus” turned out to be my favourite! Whatever happens after that: I will definitely focus more an the classical type of music like modern opera.

Serenada: Seven Croatian songs

The release date of the Serenada album has finally been set: It’s on April 15th, 2016. My first classical EP contains seven chosen Croatian songs by Josip Hatze:

1. Ljubav
2. Mio Si Mi (originally “Mila Si Mi”)
3. Cvati, Cvati, Ružice
4. Večernje Zvono
5. Serenada
6. Kiša Pada
7. Suzi

Yesterday I had a photo shooting with Christina Katz who had also taken the promotion pictures for The Muse. I wore one of my elegant dresses from Daniel Rabe who is my favourite Berlin designer. My pink era is definitely over! Now it’s time for class and quality. I hope you’ll also like the outcome of my latest photo session.

In order to give you a first impression of my forthcoming record, I made a short promotion trailer containing snippets of all the seven tracks. I truly love singing in Croatian! Today my Serbian teacher Nena announced to provide me with more Croatian repertoire next week. Is this the end of ‘alien pop’? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: Times have changed and I’m not the same musician I used to be five or six years ago. If I’m meant to continue my musical career in Croatian, I see no reason to protest! 😉

My first video from the Serenada album is going to be released on March 13th: I decided to sing “Suzi” on it, a song dedicated to a tear. I also have plans to film a “Serenada” video which will be out on April 15th – on the day of the digital release.

Serenada Gets Ready

More than three weeks have past since my last article, but I’m still alive. I’ve just come home from Planet Earth Studios where I recorded another two songs for my classical record Serenada. As I had mentioned before, it’s a collection of songs from the Croatian composer Josip Hatze. Thus, the entire record is sung in Croatian which is a beautiful language in my opinion.

Originally Serenada was meant to contain five songs, but in the meantime I also discovered “Mila Si Mi” (I changed it to “Mio Si Mi” to refer to a man) and “Kiša Pada”. Both songs fit my story of unhappy love to be revealed on the record. Pretty thoroughly did I choose the tracks and compiled them in the correct order to develop the story. If you have listened to music from Croatia before, you might have noticed that it tends to be very emotional. By the way, longing and unrequited love is also a popular topic in Croatian rock music.

However, let’s stick to my classical record Serenada now. A few days ago I shot the music video for “Suzi”, a song dedicated to a tear. It’s a very gloomy little film in black and white to correspond to the lyrics of “Suzi”, the last song on the album. The video will be out in February or March. As soon as I know the release date, I will tell you more. So take care!

My Successful Record Release Party

Last Friday my new EP The Muse was released. I celebrated the record release party at my favourite spot of the Berlin art scene: Galerie Studio St.St. This gallery is run by the charming painter, songwriter and living art work Juwelia Soraya St.St. In my opinion Juwelia is the sweetest transvestite this city has ever seen – a friendly funny host who opens her cozy gallery every weekend to present her colourful pictures and her hilariously trashy songs. Visitors are invited to chat and to contribute all kinds of art themselves. If you want to meet me by accident, come to the gallery on a Friday night. You might find me there while performing opera or my own songs.

As I have always appreciated the warm living-room atmosphere of Juwelia’s world, I decided to launch The Muse at Galerie Studio St.St. Due to the typical traffic delays I arrived a little bit late, wearing a stunning olive green velvet dress made by my favourite Berlin fashion designer Daniel Rabe. The gallery had already been crowded and a couple of my best friends gave me a very warm welcome. Everything was perfect to feel good during the show which was opened by Juwelia.

At first I sang all the title songs from my first four EPs, starting with “Silly Little Boys” from 2011. None of those boys had gathered among the spectators, not even my three muses from The Muse. Thus, I was merely surrounded by nice boys and girls who made me feel good. I truly enjoyed the interaction with the audience this time. In fact, it was the best record release party I have ever had! Unfortunately some friends were forced to be absent because of the flu or geographical distance. In my thoughts, however, we were all connected …

If you were not able to come to my show either, please feel free to have a glimpse at the concert photos on my Facebook page. The EP itself is available at my CD shop or at iTunes and other digital download platforms.

The Anna Aliena CD shop

Have you visited my new CD shop? I promise you that this part of my website is the only place where you can buy all my CDs! In addition, I will personally sign the purchased album for you if you wish. Concerning my forthcoming EP The Muse, I made up my mind not to give the CD to any external distributor. As a musician you hardly ever know where the money ends up … You better order The Muse here and get Alien Pop for free.

Of course my CD shop has been authorized by my label Go!Diva Records which is mainly responsible for distributing my records. As you can see on the picture, I have never published my debut Silly Little Boys (2011) on CD. Nevertheless, my first EP and the single Gloomy Sunday (2012) are available at the big download stores such as Amazon and iTunes.

At the moment I only accept your payment via PayPal. All the prices include package and shipment to your home address – no matter where you live. If you make an order on my website, your CD will be accompanied by a handwritten letter from me to you. Many of you already know how much I love the interaction with my fans. Whenever you leave a comment on my social media sites, I try to reply to you as soon as possible.

Tomorrow I’m going to start recording my classical EP Serenada which will probably be out next spring. For details, please read my blog post “Preview Of A Classical Record“.

How I designed the CD artwork for The Muse

While I was arranging a Josip Hatze song for my classical EP Serenada, my forthcoming oeuvre The Muse arrived from the CD factory on Thursday night. After unpacking the parcel I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve as some of you may have noticed on my Facebook site, on Twitter or Google+. In my opinion the CD looks beautiful and even a little bit better than its predecessor Swinging Berlin! Well, it’s a question of personal taste and I don’t want to sound narcissistic here. Nevertheless, it involves a lot of work to create professional-looking CD artwork. Today I’m telling you how it works.

At first you must find a realiable factory to print CDs at reasonable prices. I always order them at the same company which is specialized in smaller editions. On their website they provide samples having the right measurements for the cover image, the booklet, the inlay and the CD label. Customers can download these samples for Adobe Photoshop – the well-known photo software I’ve always used to design the outer appearance of my music.

As my recent press photos focus on romantic sunsets in Croatia, it was easy to conceive an appropriate layout for The Muse on CD. The booklet conceals one of the marvelous images taken by Christina Katz (please also read “The Muse“ press photos in the making). Page 4 of the booklet and the back of the CD feature my spectacular sunset pictures I personally shot on the beach of Starigrad-Paklenica. By the way, I didn’t need Photoshop to increase the brightness of the colours. When you look at the CD, you will see the sunset through my eyes. Of course nothing will ever be able to compete with the original moment of taking the photos, though!

Until now The Muse has not left my territory, except for one copy: Although it’s a national holiday in Germany, my vocal coach Snezana Nena Brzakovic gave me a lesson this morning. Since she helped me translate the song “Deine Blauen Augen“ into “Tvoje Plave Oči“, she had to be the first one to hold The Muse in her hands. 🙂

The official record release of The Muse is on October 30th. If you preorder it before this date, I will give you my EP Alien Pop from 2013 for free! I decided to sell the EP for 8 euros per copy (plus package and shipping). Soon you will be able to order my music on this website, but you can also contact me via Facebook or write an email to info@godiva-records.biz. I’m going to add my signature to each CD!

Preview Of A Classical Record

In 2010 I made my first attempt to produce a classical record. Some months before my separation from the duo ShirayasDream we released an EP called ”Kleiner Vogel Liebe”. All the tracks were written and composed by my colleague Oliver Höhne and me. From time to time I listen to my old repertoire to convince myself of my continuous positive development as a singer and composer … Of course I would do many things differently nowadays!

Now it’s time for another classical EP. At the beginning of this week I started to arrange five songs by Josip Hatze. After my love song “Tvoje Plave Oči” on my forthcoming record The Muse I feel like singing more Croatian repertoire. I really love the sound of that language!

Hatze (1879 – 1959) was one of the most prominent Croatian composers. He came from Split and wrote numerous songs like “Suzi”, ”Serenada” and “Ljubav”. His music strongly attracts me because it has great moments of operatic drama. I chose five songs to depict another moving story of love, the pain of love and longing. On my Hatze EP I will make use of vast orchestration to build a perfect ground for real operatic singing.

On my previous releases I haven’t shown the entire capacities of my voice. As I’m most interested in challenges, the time is ripe for guiding my listeners to new grounds. I’m probably the first German singer to record Hatze’s music. It’s also quite uncommon to be so ambitious in learning his language here in Germany. Nevertheless, I have never followed the masses – I do it my way! 😉 As a musician I can only concentrate on repertoire which has found the way to my heart.

Thus, I’m extraordinarily optimistic to present you my classical EP Serenada next spring. It might be out on my birthday in March. I will also film a gloomy music video to promote “Suzi”, a song dedicated to a tear. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please feel free to listen to Lidija Horvat Dunjko’s interpretation in the YouTube video. In my opinion she’s a very marvelous lyrical soprano.

Before you will be allowed to hear my own version, I’m looking forward to the release of my ballad EP The Muse on October 30th. Soon you will be able to preorder the CD on my website. I’ve really done my best to create beautiful artwork for it! 🙂