As well as working as a producer, singer, visual artist, sound designer and painter, Berlin-based artist Anna Jordan records music under moniker The Allegorist. Described as “a comprehensive electronic music project with a holistic approach based on musical storytelling,” the vehicle allows Jordan space to combine her various sensibilities into one outlet, thriving on a diversity of influences and intentions and underpinned by the constant desire to invent new things.
This extends to the lyrics, which are written and performed in the fictional Mondoneoh language. Where ‘Mondo-‘ refers to a Buddhist search for truth, while ‘neo-‘ situates it within a contemporary effort to transcend outdated conventions, and the final ‘h’ links these past and present to unite a whole. Such in-depth and metaphorical meaning is typical of The Allegorist style, and is suggestive of the complete commitment to the vision that Jordan imagines.
Latest album Hybrid Dimensions II is no exception. The second instalment of a series started in 2018 with Hybrid Dimensions I, the record pulls the reader into a carefully built world that straddles sci-fi and fantasy, feeding off of the past/future dualism that sits at the heart of The Allegorist aesthetic. Jordan provides a storybook to provide proper context, but essentially the songs see a protagonist travel great distances and confront great dangers, its mythic connotations allowing the exploration of themes of solace, redemption and loss. All realised through a blended sound that incorporates classical, electronic and ambient styles.
Single ‘Dark Forces’ indicates how such an ambitious project might sound. Emerging from a flat, shadowed void, the song gradually comes to life in all of its scope and space. But from within the track’s vacant expanses, something large and ominous shifts out of view. Something that approaches gradually, creeping ever closer as the song unfurls, eventually revealing itself in its surreal, sublime form.
Hybrid Dimensions II is out on the 7th May and you can pre-order it now from The Allegorist Bandcamp page.
Photo credit @annajordanproject