AURORA: THE WOMAN SHE IS

AURORA:

AURORA:

The Woman She Is

In the nearly ten years of her career, she has made a name for herself as a generational benchmark who looks for more than just singles, hits, and awards. With a highly unusual view of music, she responds to the motivations behind her proposals.

Aurora Asknes, who performs exclusively under her first name, is a unique pop musician who differs greatly from the western conception of the genre. She conveys a single message of optimism and love with a connection to the outside world, to nature, and to other people. Despite the fact that some have compared her to Björk, Aurora is different, with a much more human purity and still a long way to go. Her songs, which are based on synthesizers and electronic

sounds, serve as anthems for a generation that is searching for hope in the midst of darkness.

Running with the Wolves, the debut album by Aurora, was released in May 2015 by Decca Records, Glassnote and Petroleum Records. She gained international recognition in 2015 after performing “Half The World Away” by Oasis for a Christmas commercial for the UK retailer John Lewis. After receiving a lot of positive feedback from national media and music bloggers

online, on March 11, 2016, “All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend,” her debut studio album, finally became available. Later in 2018, she

released her second album/ EP, “Infections of a Different Kind” - Step 1 followed by her third studio album, “A Different Kind of Human” -

Step 2, which was published in 2019. Her fourth and last studio album The Gods We Can Touch, was released on January 21, 2022.

• Running with the Wolves (2015 EP)

• All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend (2016 album)

• Infections of a Different Kind - Step 1 (2018 album/ EP)

• A Different Kind of HumanStep 2 (2019 album)

• The Gods We Can Touch (2022 album)

The Life of Aurora Asknes Before The Capital Letters:

Aurora Aksnes was born in the Stavanger University Hospital in Stavanger, Norway, on 15 June 1996. She spent her first three years in Høle, a small town where her parents, May Britt Aksnes and Jan Øystein Aksnes, had lived for 15 years. In her house in Høle, Aurora developed her taste for nature, singing, and traditional clothing, such as long skirts and hats. Later the family moved further north in western Norway, to a house in the woodlands of the Os mountains, a remote municipality in Hordaland close to Bergen where she grew up. Aurora has described this place as “There are almost no cars, and the roads are small and bumpy, and there are lots of trees everywhere; it’s very quiet, and the internet is bad.” She has also compared it to the fictional land of Narnia. She has two older sisters, Miranda, a make-up artist, and Viktoria, a fashion designer. Aurora is the only musician in her family. She started ma-

king music when she found her parents’ old electric piano in her attic. “I really love classical music, and when I found this piano in the attic, I just started pressing the keys and trying to figure out my favorite classical songs. I started to make melodies that I recognized. There was something special about being able to play just by yourself – something about the emotion in it made me want to continue playing.” At age 10, she began writing her own songs. Songs such as “Running with the Wolves”, “I Went Too Far” and “Runaway” were written in this early life. She was later convinced by her mother to sing about her, who told her that her music could help other people. Her first single, “Puppet,” was released in December 2012. Besides classical music, she has mentioned she was influenced by artists like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Enya, as well as The Chemical Brothers and melodic metal.

Given her tendency to interpret very intimate lyrics in her native Norwegian, Aksnes writes her songs in English. But ever since the release of her EP Infections of a Different Kind (Step 1), she’s been adding lyrics in her own “emotional language” to alter the atmosphere and significance of his interpretation.

Although Aksnes has stated that she wants to write her songs to help relieve her followers’ suffering and to defend “weird” people and show “how special they are”. Aksnes claimed that she included the sound of the ocean, the sound of rain, and her embracing a tree in

All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, which is typical of her music’s use of natural sounds. The ocean is

Behind Her Music

She herself has referred to her own music as “dark folk-pop” and “native pop,” which is influenced by American and Norwegian poetry.

frequently mentioned in the album’s final two tracks (“Under the Water” and “Black Water Lilies”) as a sign of his connection to nature and how “dark” his compositions are (the first song discusses drowning while the second discusses coming back

afloat).

On her second album, there are more hidden noises, according to Aksnes: The song

“Queendom,” for instance, has a secret recording of a woman drumming on the streets of Brazil. Her sound has been compared to those of musicians like Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Björk, and Florence Welch. She herself has referred to her own music as “dark folk-pop” and “native pop,” which is influenced by American and Norwegian poetry.

Her voice has frequently been described as “ethereal,” and the repetitive use of vowels in the music, like “ah,” “oh,” and “la,” has

also been highlighted. Her career has been characterized by reoccurring themes of love, sexuality, environmentalism, religion, and human rights. Through her lyrics and live performances, she has shown her support for the LGBT community and the legalization of abortion.

Although she uses sophisticated language to convey her message of equality, respect for others, and nature, something changed because of what happened. This evolution starts with “Exist for Love” 2020, which is notable for being Aurora’s first entirely love song in a sense that is different from her traditio-

nal songs and for moving away from synthesizers to adopt an orchestral work by Isobel Waller-Bridge, a composer who is best known for her participation in the series Fleabag and the tape Emma and is one of the most significant musicians working today. Even though the piece is romantic, it is clearly founded in the current instability, serving as a reminder that despite all the bad in the world, there is a safe place where we may stay.

Ah-ahah-ah!

The mature conflict in the 2019 Disney film “Frozen 2” takes the form of a siren call in the distance, calling Elsa to leave her Arendelle kingdom and unearth the mysteries of her past. When she begins singing “Into the Unknown,” Aurora contributes the haunting “Ah-ahah-ah!” heard throughout the song and the rest of the movie.

Aurora shared this opinion. The singer enjoyed the movie’s strong message as well as the references to her culture and the breathtaking natural scenes, which, in her opinion, closely resemble Norway.

“It was like a puzzle. . . falling together,” she says. “It felt right for me to be a part of that, because I’m a big supporter of following your instincts.”

Appearance

In contrast to her rich vocal range and the profound message of her songs, she initially makes her notice for her childlike appearance, pale skin, lack of makeup, short platinum blonde hair, and eyebrows of the same color. Later, Aksnes modified her hairstyle to a “Norwegian Viking”-inspired half shaved look, and during 2018, she has become known for her “two-layer” look (length in front and short in back), which is reminiscent of anime characters.

Histrionics and emotionality are hallmarks of his live performances; her wide-open eyes and peculiar hand movements can give off the impression that she is under the influence of something supernatural. In between songs, he frequently finds herself speechless and wanders off in front of the audience.