NYC Multi-Instrumentalist Musician Andrea Ward Shares Her Newly Released Album "Ribbon of Water"
NYC multi-instrumentalist musician, dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and untethered mystic Andrea Ward occupies a realm all her own. This one-of-a-kind artist merges music and movement as one on ethereal, wholly atypical, label-defying album "Ribbon of Water", out now. Undisturbed and unaffected by current trends, Andrea Ward's uniquely inspired musical alchemy melds a harmonious collection of subgenres, drawing inspiration from Icelandic Pop, Norwegian Rock, Experimental, Alternative Pop, Permanent Wave and Avant-Garde sounds. Not succumbing to stylistic limitations helps Andrea uses music as a tool to delve deep within, to welcome the dark, broken aspects of our selves and let go of that which we cannot control.
About the new release, Andrea shares “The album is influenced by water, and water is the ultimate guide for letting go, for yielding to forces beyond our control. I developed injuries this year and came to a point where my body broke down from anything, and my voice as well. Unable to do a lot of things and unable to speak, I was forced to relinquish control of life, and just flow. One song on the album is “Visiting Rooms,” inspired by Alzheimer’s which runs in the family. It’s just about visiting the different rooms of consciousness, and of life, as if we’re all walking each other through experiences that slowly teach us to let go, which is what we’ll have to do completely in the end. And each experience leaves a mark on us, mentally, physically, and I can look at a person and see the way that life has beaten them up, has shaped them. It’s made me proud of my broken-ness in a way. It makes life’s endeavors all the more meaningful when we’re dealing with limitations. When I think of life as something that’s slowly devouring me, slipping me away, it makes me want to give myself to life all the more."
By combining musicality with her immense knowledge of movement and a direct, intimate relationship with the subconscious mind, Andrea Ward speaks her truth from a wellspring of great depth and limitless creative energy. With a creative spark that greets reality yet borders on the esoteric, Andrea's work encompasses a unique and sacred space all it's own for listeners to access.
Life often imitates art, and this was the case in Andrea's life. In December, the house she recorded the album in burned down, the same week that she'd decided to let go of some massive ideas about life.
"I had just done a meditation that night of painfully saying goodbye to ideas and projects I had once held closely to my life plan. It was Dave Pelletier's house, basically a majestic art sanctuary in the woods he had built 20 years ago. Jump ahead 20 years and I met Dave by such interesting means. I was traveling through Europe and needed a place to settle to record. I intended to stay for a few months, I ended up staying for a year. We were connected in really deep ways. I created absolutely everything there, the music videos, the underwater footage, I threw Dave's drum set in the pool for some cool underwater shots, I healed my spine there, I healed my grief. Dave is like no other human being. His channels are all open, plants grow faster around him, technology goes haywire...That house, and the fact that it's no longer there, makes the memory of my time there even more of an enigma. The way that art projects assembled quickly in that house was as if the Earth energy was stronger there, or maybe the house had escaped the modern conventional world. I feel that Dave saved my life. He saved my life and I burned his house down! Just kidding, we don't know how the fire happened, but Dave was really strong through it all, losing such special works of art, incredible paintings and sculptures. The designer of the house (Steven Henry Lee) claimed it was his big "Magnum Opus." For me the fire was like a wild animal, like nature throwing its divine fit. It's not like the anger that throws dishes across the room. It's simply a shove out the door, and a wordless thank you for the time spent.”
Listen to “Ribbon of Water” now, and connect with Andrea Ward on her website and social media.