Mari Dangerfield is an up-and-coming artist from London who made a name for herself by winning a competition organized by Yann Tiersen and Mute Records. Half tongue-in-cheek and half completely earnest, her first single “Virtually” is an endearing electropop commentary on digital love. “I virtually know you / But I only know you virtually / For talking online I couldn’t say I know you personally.” Rocking a Stylophone just like David Bowie did in his classic “Space Oddity”, Mari Dangerfield has managed to come up with an imaginative and fun way to produce futuristic sounds by looking into the past.

Even more remarkable that the song’s instrumental backbone is Dangerfield’s vocal quirkiness, which works just like a charm alongside the track’s lyrics and melody. From its opening riff to its awkwardly high vocals, “Virtually” is an ideal Eurovision song from top to bottom (disclaimer: this is NOT a backhanded compliment). “Virtually” is the perfect love song for the Tinder generation, the kind of track that every artist under 30 should be making. Do you remember the last time you first met someone in real life without having talked online first? Me neither. Dangerfield has gone to state that she was trying to make an electronic song that didn’t sound like most electronic songs these days. Mission accomplished. “Virtually” is as catchy as it is unique, and if this is her business card I’ll make sure to come back for more.

JANEE: “Do you know what ORCHESTRAP is?”

Janee is one of these young acts who took possession of Soundcloud. The social streaming service is for a whole generation of musicians the equivalent of what the urban streets are for graffiti artists. By expressing themselves with freedom and anonymity, some of them are building the future landscapes of music: post-club, post-pop, and so on…

This young producer (actually we don’t know if he/she’s young) is one of them, for sure. The maestro, who hides himself/herself behind the “orchestrap” label, has already collected quite a lot of plays with only four tracks. What is orchestrap? Well, this blend word, which can easily be conceptualized, perfectly fits Janee‘s sound. It’s an uncluttered and almost organic mix of classical music and trap. The first artist that came to my mind when I listened to his/her compositions was Yann Tiersen, a French musician and composer whose music is influenced by the classical training he received when he was a child and by the American and British punk subculture he used to belong to as a teenager. Janee could be a Yann Tiersen of 2016, the “trap” subculture replacing the punk.

You can listen to his/her latest track “Lake” below, and read the minimalist sentence that the producer graciously shared with us:

[su_quote]Imagine, you’re alone, somewhere in the Danish woods. You see some birds flying around a frozen lake.[/su_quote]

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1) Who is the mysterious Janee?

I won’t tell, sorry!

2) Ok, but at least, where do you live? Are you a male or a female?

I am human after all 🙂

3) How would you describe and present your music to someone who never played one of your song?

Do you know what Orchestrap is?

4) We obviously hear classical influences in your work, do you play all the instruments yourself?

These are coming from VST’s but I play piano.

5) What are your influences?

Yann Tiersen, Erik Satie, Agnes Obel, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Daft Punk, old school games.

6) If you could collaborate with one artist, who would you choose?

Agnes Obel

7) For me, you are like a beats version of Yann Tiersen. How do you feel about this comparison?

I’m feeling pretty good about this because he’s one of my influences.

8) What are your ambitions and what is coming next for you?

I’d love to play live!

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So, like you, we don’t know more than that about JANEE… We take the gamble that he is a guy from France or from Belgium (as he seems to collaborate with GrisFx, at least for the visuals). And for the rest, let’s just respect his/her wish and focus on the music.

Rediscover “Woods”, “Birds”, and the Kanye-esque “For My Lady”:

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[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/281776724″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/284615685″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/286903750″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
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Connect with JANEE on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, and Spotify.