Y'AKOTO

Y'AKOTO - Moody Blues

Letting go. Backpedalling.The easiest things are often the most difficult ones to do. But in the supposed banality of these things lies the danger of losing oneself on the surface and forgetting them. It's that simple.

Even Y'akoto, an artist known for her level-mindedness, is not immune from this danger. Particularly because the past two years were so exciting, eventful and grand that one can forget the little things very quickly. After all Y'akoto was praised by the press as giving a new voice to the legacy of singers auch as Billie Holiday or Nina Simone and without further ado she launched a new genre called Soul Seeking Music with her combination of folk, pop, singer-songwriter soul with an African touch.Not to forget the countless shows where Y'akoto performed with established artists such as Erykah Badu or Nneka. Her first headline tour included not only dates in Germany but also Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Vienna.

Even now BabyBlues still makes an international impact. It was released in the USA in February. The track Diamonds is featured in the new Steve Pink movie About Last Night and is included on the international soundtrack. In Italy Without You is climbing in the national single/airplay charts.

However, despite all of these great events and wonderful experiences, Y'akoto remains driven by insecurity. She is still searching for the answers to all the countless questions about life, for the best song and least of all for herself.

Therefore Y'akoto has made the best of this and made her insecurity the leitmotif of her new album. And this was a good decision. In the end, her growing insecurity is largely due to the situation that she has become more open, reveals more of herself and questions things more often. Her inconstancy doesn't come from a lack of self-confidence but from the courage to make herself vulnerable through her music. Instead of writing her pains away, Y'akoto writes herself into the pain and tries to take command of the general disorientation of the world by musical means.

Y'akoto has grown, not only musically but also as a person. While her previous album was mainly defined by anger, sadness, defiance and cynicism, the helplessness that accompanies these feelings is transformed to the urge for change on Moody Blues.The fear of emotional injuries has given way to genuine care for the needs of her fellow human beings. The thoughtless focus on one's self has made room for a sincere interest in the world's problems.

The artistic examination of her self-doubt and her prejudice in regards to honest affection has resulted in her growing as an artist and as a person. 

She chose this condition as the theme for the song In A War, in which one line is "I said, I'm used to be alone/I give a damn, I can handle my own." Also the track Carry This deals with the fear of relationships, lack of devotion and the timidness of entering interpersonal commitments and how much energy is inherent in emotional barriers and the serious liaison between two people.

At the same time Y'akoto dwells not only on herself and the First World problems of her environment but takes a look beyond on her second album.Therefore she also handles subjects that she has been confronted with on her trips to Africa or via conversations with less-priviledged people and that touched her heart.

In the song Mother And Son the 26-year-old concentrates in a very emotional way on the fact that many sons everywhere in the world have to grow up without their fathers - because they have to earn a living, look for work or go to war. Off The Boat on the other hand can be seen as an acoustic metaphor for the every day hustle in everyone's life. And Down To The River despite its arrangement in an attractive sound conveying elegy and hope, deals with the serious contemplation of the intention of commiting suicide.

Thus Moody Blues has again been musically accompanied by Kahedi (Max Herre, Samon Kawamura, Roberto di Gioia), Mocky and Haze, as well as the London producer Ben Cullum, a musical equivalent of Y'akoto's creative examination of the duality of life. It's about light and darkness, coming and going, constancy and change.

So the 26-year-old grinds all of her fears and hopes between the well-formed lines on her album, chisels a musical monument of consolation and sorrow with the natural urgency of her voice. She underlays the pro and cons in the ways of the world with a multifaceted soundbase of maximised minimalism that unmistakably bears her imprint and that touches people.