Ask anyone where ‘Queen of Balance’ fits in a musician’s oeuvre and they’d probably tell you it arrives with peak artistic maturity.
It’s something of a wonder then that this is IAKO’s debut single. Big, bold, and opulent, it calls to mind the classic lovelorn balladeers of yesteryear. With IAKO’s tender vocal piercing through the mix like a sunbeam through clouds, ‘Queen Of Balance’ is a masterclass in dynamic songwriting and production. For the 22-year-old London based Venetian songwriter, it’s a poignant reflection on his transition between the two cities, cutting to the heart of that vulnerable state of mind which emerges from such an upheaval. A curious amalgamation of baroque piano arrangements and intimate vocals, ‘Queen of Balance’ is as transparent and sensitive as the singer-songwriter himself. Self-produced at the exotic Starlight Studios in Naples, and mastered by world class engineer Pete Maher in London, ‘Queen Of Balance’ is the first taste and title track of IAKO’s bold new EP.
“I wrote ‘Queen of Balance’ around this time last year, at the end of a difficult period that eventually made me lose a very important person. I’d say it’s about the acceptance of masculine vulnerability at its purest state.”
About IAKO
Drawing on the intimate worlds of indie-folk singer/songwriters like Lisa Hannigan and James Vincent McMorrow, as well as minimalist composers Erik Satie and Yann Tiersen, IAKO’s music is a unique blend of writerly lyricism and absorbing cathartic soundscapes. He draws heavily on the contrast between London’s frenetic pace and the languorous Venetian environment. On his debut EP Queen Of Balance he tactfully explores the emotional complexity of transition and reinvention through his restless movement-oriented songwriting. IAKO is the alias of Italian singer/songwriter Jacopo Rossetto. Born in 1995 and raised in the historic grandeur of Venice, Jacopo resisted the idea of music as a feasible pathway till he was nineteen. An essayist and a poet to boot, IAKO’s creative fulcrum stems from literature, specifically Greek and Roman. Queen of Balance explores Jacopo’s epiphany that his departure from Venice just reified the profound connection he’s had with it his whole life. Famed for its canals, water is something of a thematic obsession for the songwriter, stemming back to the early stages of his life, when he fell into one of its numberless canals before being promptly rescued by his mother. Jacopo refers to this episode as his initiation; a baptism into the world of elemental world of currents and nature. These two things often inform his lyrics as he creatively reflects on the currents that swept him from Italy to the UK.
See IAKO live
24th May – The Finsbury, London
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