Belgium born, Dutch based songwriter, keyboardist and singer Alison Jutta has a knack for the quizzical. Her songs balance gracefully on the edge between playful and melancholic. Her lyrics capture her musings and daydreams as well as her grand emotions, and do it clearly and elegantly. The melancholy sneaks up on you through the heartfelt themes she touches on, all having to do with the search of looking for a place in the world. Trying to accept feelings of sadness, trying to fulfill your full potential, being unsure about next steps in life, learning to love who you are. She states that if she gives the heavy stuff a place in a song, it keeps her lighter throughout the rest of life.
Even though she takes you to a place of real emotion, she does it gently, with the effect of softening the experience by sharing it. She drapes elegant melodies over Casio drum beats, soft beds of vocal harmonies, warm guitars and synths and a dreamy, sometimes almost whispering vocal delivery. In the arrangements she plays with the different colors of electronic versus acoustic sounds, which results in a little universe all of her own.
Being born in a musical family, music has always been part of her life. She began taking classical piano lessons at the age of 8, and slowly started taking a turn from classical music towards singing and writing pop songs in her high school years. At the age of 18 she moved from Antwerp to Rotterdam to study pop vocals and songwriting at the Codarts Conservatory, and started to release original music.
In 2020 she was a finalist in prestigious music contest ‘De Nieuwe Lichting’ by Belgian national radio station Studio Brussel. After this she released a 5-song EP called ‘I’d Rather do this Slowly’ gathering support from Radio 2 (BE), 3FM (NL) and praising reviews from multiple music platforms like Dansende Beren (“She becomes the friend you want to confide in”), DaMusic (“A soft whispering singer who sings us to pop heaven”), Luminous Dash (“Delicious and fresh dreampop”). In 2021 she toured around the Netherlands with showcase festival Popronde, and in 2022 she was part of the preselection of Humo’s Rock Rally (BE).
At this point she felt ready to realize her very first album. The record titled ‘hello, I don’t know’ has been announced to be released on February 16th 2024. On this body of work she took full control of the production process, recording everything together with friends of Rotterdam-based band Socks;SportsSocks in their shared studio. The vocal recording and mixing process took place in Frontal Studio in Brussels, where Paulo Rietjens (Stikstof) took the tracks to the next level.
The record became a varied, interesting and carefully crafted collection of 10 refined pop songs, depicting the confusing, bizarre and joyous parcours that is the road to adulthood, and makes for an excellent companion for all of those who are figuring it out themselves.