SIGN LIBRA

Fashioning a hypnotic sonic universe, which melds expressive vocalisations with lush use of software synthesisers, Latvian artist Sign Libra makes music quite unlike much we've heard before. We caught up with her to find out more about her journey in expressive music-making, and how she shapes her boundless galaxy of sound...

 With its lo-fi camcorder aesthetic, and repeated shots of a chunky old desktop computer keyboard, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the music video for Sign Libra’s Le Chat was filmed back in the mid-’90s, and recently dug out of your parents’ attic. Yet Sign Libra – the artistic persona of Latvian musician Agata Melnikova – couldn’t be more 21st century.

Operating entirely in-the-box, Sign Libra creates arresting arrangements, dominated by her expressive, lyric-free vocalising. Fixated on the intricacy and beauty of nature in both a physical and personal sense, her albums to date (2018 debut Closer to the Equator, and 2020’s follow-up Sea to Sea) both explored different facets of the natural world, but Agata’s latest record, Hidden Beauty takes a more introspective angle. Across its ten tracks, she delves into the various facets of female nature. “I didn’t want this album to be straightforward in its concept, but rather like a collage, a puzzle,” Agata tells us. “There are personal themes, like loneliness, acceptance of your body, ageing, overcoming your fears. These topics are pretty serious, but with music I wanted to make them more lighthearted, keeping in a dreamy state of mind.”

Tuning up