With a name inspired by a Haitian witchdoctor, Ajimal is the solo project for Newcastle’s Fran O’Hanlon – a collaborative ‘in-ear experiment’ with the aim of writing about the interplay between ideas from music, medicine, art, ideas, literature, science and stories. Ajimal, from the first listen resembles Antony & The Johnsons or ‘minimal folk’ is how he describes his music. And his ability to take over whatever your doing while listening is quite impressive. You get stuck drooling for more and the video above is just a quick preview, you really need to dig this guy a little deeper… The rest of the tracks he’s got on offer are pretty magnificient. Here are some reviews, in case you need more convincing :
“Soporific, pianistic folk…displaying a charmingly earnest approach.” The Fly
“An unearthly, eerie and incredibly beautiful set of sounds that will capture the imagination of a much wider listening public before long.” Drowned in Sound
Our Picks, you can download :
download : Ajimal – Wolf
download : Ajimal – I’ve Known Your Heart (The Blank Sessions)
It’s very much piano driven, with some of the finest vocals this end of year has on offer, great melodies and lyrics on top of it all. It’s ‘grandiose haunted pop’… Reminiscent of Jeff Buckley and Guillemots :
