NEWS
Single released on April 15th 2022
"Isolation"
Isolation is no stranger to the Faroese people living 62 degrees north of nowhere isolated from the rest of the world. However, during the height of the global pandemic, the entire world experienced social isolation on a grand scale; cut off from family and friends. We all hunkered down, kept our distance from everyone protecting ourselves from infection. The lack of affection took a toll on everyone’s mental health and well being.
In the fall of 2020, Anna was alone in Iceland where she began studying for a Masters in Music with no possibility of interacting and making new friends. One night, out of unbearable loneliness, she tried to contact her husband and musical partner, Arnold Ludvig, composer and bassist of MonkeyRat in the Faroe Islands. Saddened by her inability to reach him, upon her return home from a park, words started overflowing her mind. Inspired, Anna quickly started jotting down all the words that kept pouring from her head and wrote this poem – Isolation. To this day, she is grateful and thanks her husband for being unreachable.
What started out as poem in Anna’s new artistic practice, Poetry w/ electronics, it took a surprising turn to the sound of psychedelic rock reminiscent of the 60’s and 70’s rock music era.
The song performed live was recorded at Soundscape Studio in DK, by female award-winning sound engineer, Louise Nipper with MonkeyRat’s award-winning musicians, Alain Apaloo on guitar, Arnold Ludvig on bass, Jens Stoklund on drums and frontwoman, musical director, poet/lyricist, Anna Iachino on vocals.
MonkeyRat delivered a pre-release live performance of Isolation at Copenhagen’s Winter Jazz Festival on February 26th, 2022 where the audience went wild rocking out to the chorus,
What a Crazy World!
Here's a teaser....
Single released on March 18th 2022
"The Child" ft. Anna Sofía Skoradal
Anna Iachino wrote The Child as a young teenager when her dream of becoming a dancer was destroyed because of religion and culture. It's the only poem that she managed to keep hidden for all these years, until composer Arnold Ludvig found it and composed music for it on Ableton Live.
When asked what words were to be read on Anna's behalf for her mother's funeral, her poem, The Child came to mind as her mother's mind became like that of a child with her dementia, free at last to express herself, laughing, singing, and clapping her hands for all to hear and cheer.
The Child is MonkeyRat's first electronic song composed solely on Ableton Live by Arnold Ludvig and sung by up-and-coming rising star Anna Sofía Skoradal. The genre is bedroom-pop, dream-pop and neo-soul, recorded and mixed by Arnold Ludvig. Additional mix by Kurt Uenala and mastered by Kurt Uenala, Grammy award nominated producer of Depeche Mode.
PAST NEWS
International Songwriting Contest 2020
MonkeyRat’s song, U Gotta Love Being U ft. Alain Apaloo was selected as a semi-finalist in the 2020 International Songwriting Competition. ISC received more than 26,000 entries, and semi-finalists made up only 9% of all entries. A remarkable achievement by MonkeyRat! The song was co-written by Anna Iachino, Beinir Troest Rasmussen, Hans Andrias Jacobsen and arranged by Arnold Ludvig. U Gotta Love Being U was written at the 2018 KODA Co-Writing Session in the Faroe Islands.
KODA Co-Writing Session 2020
Anna Iachino was among one of the songwriters chosen to participate in the Weekend Song Camp by KODA, FTF & FMX, in the Faroe Islands on October 30th, 31st and November 1st 2020.