Andrina Bollinger — Pleasure & Pain

Andrina Bollinger returns with an EP titled “Pleasure & Pain”: part artistic manifesto, part treasure map.

This tight 5-song package kicks off with the infectious, mildly psychedelic title track, where she lays out her artistic agenda: “We go fishing for pleasure and pain, in our mind oceans we are throwing our lines... collecting the good and bad.” To remain vulnerable and porous. To accept life in its totality, even when things get uncomfortable or when it hurts! Song after song, we get to feast on a cornucopia of emotion and beauty borne of this philosophy put to work. Some of this material was written for her debut album “Secret Seed”, but it needed some more time to mature.

The mounting tsunami of “Eye of a Storm” addresses indifference to the world, confronting the realization that, in the end, “the storm” won't spare anybody. The melancholic stomp of “Denial” examines privilege and transmutes corrosive guilt into righteous anger: the most powerful medicine against complacency. The silky acoustic guitar-driven ballad “Morning Gleam” amplifies a melange of sensations experienced by a pair of entangled lovers. On the closing tune, the wild percussive flurry of “No One”, courage to break rank and stand up to injustice, regardless of what's at stake, is commended. The truth is, every movement starts with somebody taking that first step.

Musically, “Pleasure & Pain” is both an assertion of freedom and a proclamation of love. A love for the endless possibilities of music: the visceral lo-fi aesthetics as well as rich, meticulous arrangements; the analog, the handmade, but also the synthetic; the cerebral and that which is centered in the body. Psychedelic, rock-inflected, tribal, folky, cinematic, jazz-infused – if you are free, you get to cut your own recipe.

The guitars, piano, synths, and most of the percussion were played by Andrina herself. Jules Martinet played bass (also flugelhorn on “Morning Gleam”), Arthur Hnatek played drums, and Julian Sartorius played percussion (on “No One” and “Denial”).