Andy Aquarius – “Waters Above, Waters Below”

We are delighted to kick off the new year with mystical new sounds from Andy Aquarius. His EP Holy Rude was one of our top listens last year, and his upcoming album Golla Gorroppu (out March 2024 via Hush Hush Records) promises more enchantment. The first single “Waters Above, Waters Below” is enigmatic, haunting, and ethereal, like all his music. Golla Gorroppu features his astounding harpistry, and angelic vocals, both Andy’s own and a heavenly guest, sounding somehow both ancient and otherworldly at the same time.

A follow-up to his acclaimed 2021 debut album Chapel, Golla Gorroppu leans into the emotional natural sentiments of European Romanticism and American Transcendentalism and reveals itself as an animist take on an internal expedition of a mythological mountain range.

The album’s title, Golla Gorroppu, is a phrase coined by Andy that stems from his meditations on the Sardinian Gorropu mountain range, a territory he explored in between the autumn of 2020 and spring of 2021. His personal translation of the title is “The Throat of the Mountain.”

With this transformative experience as his foundation, Andy found meaning in his latest work. He shares:

“At the heart of the mountain range lies a massive gorge (Gola/Goia) which is said to house various creatures of the night, amongst them trolls, the ‘mother of Gorropu’ and the devil himself. The first half of the record is tuning into the moving forces of the mountain – first the Rains, Groundwaters and Rivers, then the animal kingdom, represented by the goat and inspired by a remarkable meeting with a Sardinian mouflon (a wild sheep) during a solitary hike.

The second half of the record channels the kingdom of rocks – moving from the mountains’ murky intestines towards their loftiest peaks, covering all the mossy mysticism and crystalline vistas that lie in between.”

Sounding as indomitable and spirited as the landscape it portrays, Golla Gorroppu is a wayward epic that cries for you to become the mountain goat you always dreamt to be. Through his lyrical harp expressions and gentle vocal accents, Andy Aquarius’ latest statement traverses a magical terrain full of intrigue, nuance, and beauty.

Pre-order Golla Gorroppu on Bandcamp.