Daiana Feuer on December 3rd, 2018

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On Nov. 28, Canadian-born, L.A.-based Akua released a song that carries deep personal significance for the artist. Six years ago to the day, her father passed away from cancer. “I had no religious mechanisms or traditions to help me approach the vastness of this loss,” she explains. “From this feeling of ‘lacking,’ I thought about ancient societies and how they might have tried to make sense of the unknown; I thought of the humility required to submit to the gods, submit to the unknown; the humility required to practice acceptance.” A semblance of “Offering” emerged during that first winter, but it would be some time before she was able to complete it, and the song evolved along with her ongoing processing of the loss.

Using production software as her main instrument, Akua (last name: Carson) can fill a room with an ocean of her voice and layers of digital sound as she combines elements of R&B, folk and soul to generate a meditative mood. “Offering” is gentle yet enveloping. Lyrically, she approached the notion of ‘offering’ from different angles. “To me, an ‘offering’ is the physical and/or metaphysical representation of submitting control and accepting fate,” she adds. “Yet at the same time, an offering could be conceived as a plea; if I make an offering or a sacrifice, could it somehow reverse or change this outcome? ‘Offering’ navigates and oscillates between feelings of hope and total despair . It’s an acknowledgment that humans are at the mercy of nature. ‘Winds of a western sea, blowing his goodbye to me. Winds of a western sea, blow him, blow him back to me…'”

“Offering,” her first single since the 2013 EP “One’s Company,” is available via Bandcamp.

||| Stream: “Offering”