To escape the noise, the rush and the fast information of the modern world, Natascha Rogers, percussionist, pianist and singer, retreated to the remote village of Pommerit-le-Vicomte in Northern France to record a yet-to-be-announced album due for release next year.
Natascha Rogers is the latest signing to the highly acclaimed French imprint No Format! (Lucas Santtana, Oumou Sangaré, Msaki x Tubatsi). Serene and perfectly formed, Aniafa is the latest single (out October 18th – pre-save here) from a new album set for release in the spring of next year.
“Aniafa is the name of a precious water source of Native American inspiration, which flows in a river and nourishes every species on this Earth.” explains Natascha. “This song is a ritual, a prayer that I sing to pay homage to this source, to water and its beauty as its virtues.”
The new single comes with a stunning new video shot by Louise Ernandez, who explains her inspirations.
“Aniafa is a visual and emotional piece, a meeting point between nature and the feminine. It initiates a conversation between the purifying forces of water, fire, earth, wind and light and woman. I wanted to dramatize this connection and imagined this film as a living object, interweaving several tableaux to create a central idea, a sensation, an overall vision of a natural world that responds in echo: water, fire, earth, sun, moon, night, day.”
Described as an ode to Mother Earth and the yin in each of us, Aniafa has an otherworldly feel as Natascha urges us to rediscover the power of feminine energy that gives balance and harmony to nature. Those dreamy qualities are heightened by the meditative piano lines that also project a warm intimacy, reminiscent at times of the chamber folk of Joanna Newsome or Nina Nastasia. We look forward to hearing more from her new album, expected in early 2024.
About Natascha Rogers
Born in the Netherlands to a Dutch mother and a father with Amerindian origins, the young Natascha Rogers nurtured her four brothers. As a family, they used to move often, so she rooted herself to the piano, a world in itself, an anchor, a reference point when the horizon was too far off course. Whether in Breda, Belgium, California, or finally Bordeaux, the only thing that did not change was the upright piano on which, one scale after another, Natascha Rogers developed her playing style by picking up Chick Corea’s Children’s Songs or Yann Tiersen’s repertoire.
One day, she discovered a pair of congas left by her father hastily on the house’s front porch. Something awoke in her, and so she travelled the Black Atlantic for several years, receiving lessons from some of the greatest Mandingo and Afro-Cuban master percussionists. From then on, Natascha Rogers flourished, deepening her rhythmic know-how through the different grooves and paths it led her. But how to find one’s own?
In this case, Natascha Rogers headed to the quiet commune of Pommerit-le-Vicomte, located in Brittany in northwestern France. Accompanied by sound engineer Joachim Olaya and her dog Joy, and with all the time in the world, she began to create her own path, one that led to the recording of her new album, now set for release in early 2024.
Stream Aniafa: https://idol-io.ffm.to/aniafa
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natascharogers/