Pollyhill & Samara Alofa release ‘Aquaries: Age Of Uranus’ on digital and Vinyl LP
PollyHill (she/her) and Samara Alofa (she/they, Ngati Awa, Vailoa Palauli, Ha’apai) are musicians and producers based in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland).
In 2023 they joined forces to release the critically acclaimed collaborated debut Aquaries. The two built an otherworldly odyssey by way of minimal electronica, sultry R&B vocals, atmospheric trip-hop. Rolling Stone AUS/NZ called it “the sound of the Auckland night,” ranking it in their Best New Zealand Album Of The Year, while award winning journalist Tony Stamp explained on RNZ’s The Sampler that “together the pair have carved out their own sonic space, deliberately shunning anything too comfortable in favour of something that’s just theirs.”
Now teamed up with Sunreturn, PollyHill and Sarama Alofa return with Aquaries: Age Of Uranus, a remix album curated by Tāmaki’s DJ HalfQueen. In celebrate the release is pressed to limited edition vinyl LP (150 copies only) featuring Aquaries on Side A and Age Of Uranus on Side B. These are available exclusively from Bandcamp and Flying Out.
STREAM POLLYHILL, SAMARA ALOFA – AQUARIES: AGE OF URANUS
Aquaries: Age Of Uranus was expertly curated by PollyHill, Samara Alofa along with Half Queen and features remixes from Mokotron, DJ Snakelegs (Alexa Casino), Caru, Queen Of The Hill (a collaboration between Half Queen & PollyHill), Amamelia and Leaping Tiger. The remixes reconstitute the soulful trip hop originals into Hiko, House, Techno, Breakbeat and Experimental Electronica that are primed for the club.
“Choosing remixers was pretty simple really,” states Half Queen. “Overall it was a matter of imagining how their sonic worlds could collide with Aquaries. We chose people who have such strong, staunch artistic voices and choices – they’re all bold producers who we felt would connect to the original songs, and who we all felt in alignment with. All of them, and each of us (P, Samara and myself) have either connected with them in the past personally, or creatively, or experienced a set of theirs, so the curation was very natural! They all brought their unique offerings and we’re all so excited to see this project land and ripple outwards.”
Along with the curation Half Queen also provides their debut remix as Queen Of The Hill (in collaboration with PollyHill). She affirms “Making music is the best thing ever. “I wanted to start production because I have so many ideas. It’s a natural pathway from experiencing others’ music (my career is built on playing music), to wanting to give back to the ecosystem. Music is a regenerative form.”
“The lyrics are so poignant, always relevant; ‘love, let it open us’, ‘find it in yourself, turn it into health, hold on to nothing’; so many messages and so much feeling. Samara’s vocals work as this vessel with dual quality, light and heavy, singing about the transformative power of love and pain, and the production is just this unreal minimalist, abstract trip hop—there’s so much to admire about the original.”
PollyHill explains “we were sitting in the studio and tried to cook something up together, as we progressed, it seemed as though we were making garbage. Then we had our individual laptops, I was on Maschine, Shaq was chopping on Serato studio, we had our headphones on, and could only slightly hear each other, and somehow it all came together. We’d break away from our solo work and hear each others’ latest offer and were so excited by the little whacky flourishes we’d both made. It was quite organic and mostly silly buggers and then at one point we were just like… oh… this is good.
“We called it the Edging remix because every time we wanted to drop the beat and let it go there, we added another bar or 2 of build up, and we thought it was funny. We wanted to really tease out the release so it felt earned. We’ve been edging a new project together for years so there’s more to come. Queen of the Hill was born.”
Listeners will find Pain (Edging Queen of The Hill Remix) on the limited edition pressing of 150 vinyl LPs featuring Aquaries on Side A and Age Of Uranus on Side B, available exclusively from Bandcamp and Flying Out. Reflecting on the release Samara Alofa expresses “It has been our little secret for a while so it’s very exciting to finally share with everyone what’s been on the burner for sometime now. It also feels special to set out to make something with friends, and then actually finish it. Feels like an homage or honouring that relationship.”
Photo Credit: Nicola Sandford
