Ada Morghe has earned comparisons to Norah Jones for the timeless vocal beauty and accomplished jazz/soul songwritingthat has made her two albums to date, ‘Box’ and ‘Pictures’, so captivating. And just like the genre’s most renowned artists, Ada consistently captures a romantic streak, albeit one often tempered by realism and regret.
On first impressions, Frank Ocean feels like an unusual choice of artist for Ada Morghe to cover. But the depth of feeling that she establishes is something that also stands tall in his work, especially with her choice of ‘IVY’, which featured on his critically adored ‘Blonde’ album.
While the original supported Frank Ocean’s lyrical narrative with little more than suitably dreamy guitar, Ada expands ‘IVY’ into a richer, full band arrangement full of warm, naturalistic instrumentation. The end result is testament to both artist’s abilities, the song’s melancholy mood and starkly honest lyrics feeling like a classic that you’ve known for years. The song was produced by Hans-Martin Buff, who was a long-term collaborator with Prince.
“I wanted to cover ‘IVY’ because I love the song and the story behind it,” says Ada. “Frank Ocean remembers a failed relationship in the song and says that it’s his ‘version of a collage, how we experience memory sometimes, it’s not linear.’ Even if we are enjoying the same moment in a relationship, our memories will never be exactly the same. We will tell our own stories, probably seeing it in flashes overlaid as time passes.”
The video for ‘IVY’ shows the artist Lara Jauch improvising her illustrated interpretation of the song. Taking shape step-by-step, the video is a hypnotic example of how to deliver a simple idea immaculately. Watch BELOW:
Ada adds, “I asked Lara not to think about what she was going to draw, and instead just listen to the song and to sketch what she gets out of the story. Watching her drawing feels like dreaming to me.”
Music is one of Ada’s many talents. Under her real name Alexandra Helmig, she’s also a highly regarded actress, scriptwriter and children’s author. When she wrote and performed in a stage adaptation of the film ‘Mother Bee’, she also decided to create the songs for its soundtrack. Hans-Martin Buff was enamoured by her talents and encouraged her to record them professionally, which resulted in Ada singing in the hallowed Abbey Road Studio just six weeks later.
Ada’s debut album ‘Pictures’ was released in 2019 and it has since accumulated over a million streams. The ‘Box’ album followed in 2020 and some of its songs were freshly refined with the ‘Box Unplugged’ EP.
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