LP

Electronic

Tracklist:

SIDE A
1. Fallen Angel - DJ Python
2. Sword - Ana Roxanne
3. III - Ana Roxanne
4. The Veil I - Natural Wonder Beauty Concept
5. Natural Wonder Beauty Concept - Natural Wonder Beauty Concept
SIDE B
1. The Veil II - DJ Python
2. Young Adult Fiction - Ana Roxanne
3. Driving - Natural Wonder Beauty Concept
4. Clear - Natural Wonder Beauty Concept
5. World Freehand Circle Drawing - DJ Python


The life of the solo electronic artist is equal parts privilege and loneliness. You hurtle across
the sky to spend a few hours in a dark club, behind the decks or on stage at the microphone.
A brief grasp at transcendence, then the lights are on. Afterwards, you chat with friends you
made last month, last year, or an hour ago. Back on the train, the plane. A couple weeks of
this, then home. Repeat. It was against this backdrop that Ana Roxanne and DJ Python (Brian
Piñeyro) struck up a singular friendship and collaboration, culminating in the shared musical
language of their new project, Natural Wonder Beauty Concept.
Brian and Ana met in New York City in the winter of 2020. They’d respectively put out
critically acclaimed albums but due to extenuating global circumstances, the real-world
implications of those records were yet to be seen. Ana’s debut LP, Because of a Flower,
released in fall 2020, trades in both ethereality and directness, stretching timeless pop and
R&B forms into shimmering ambient magic. When the Bay Area-born, Mills-trained artist
sings, on record or live, time slows down and we enter a languorous yet ecstatic present.
The second album from Queens-based deep reggaeton innovator DJ Python, Mas Amable,
also subverts easy temporality. Released in spring 2020, Mas Amable floats in liminal space
—not quite a dance record, a downtempo record, nor an ambient record—unfurling at a
wistful pace, naturally suited for a strange period when each day felt the same yet wildly
different.

Well-loved albums aside, no one was playing shows, and a general listlessness and
disconnection prevailed. Roxanne had recently moved to New York, and while the pair had
previously interacted online and expressed admiration with each others’ work, they were
now able to meet in person for the first time. A quiet understanding developed between the
two artists on their initial hangs – they drove around the outskirts of NYC, listening to
Telegram by Björk, HTRK, Portishead, all manner of melancholy acoustic indie songs. They
pulled over in Filipino neighborhoods to eat. Periods of volubility were punctuated by
silence, laughter interspersed with wide-eyed pondering. For Brian and Ana, studio
experimentation was the instinctive extension of a friendship finding its feet.
The duo’s preternatural communication was present from the start. In early, open-ended
sessions at Gary’s Electric Studio in Greenpoint, they arrived on a moody, novel sound
encompassing trip-hop, synth-pop, brittle IDM drums, and samples of classical music.
Piñeyro threw out ideas at a breakneck pace. Ana impacted the sound with subtle,
monumental chord shapes and textures, eventually singing over strange and beautiful beats.
“There was lots of time to make music during the first year we worked on the project,” they
remember. “The winter in New York felt quite vacuous, so we spent a lot of time reflecting
on feeling too much and feeling nothing at all.”

Then, after a heady start on a prospective album, the world reopened. Roxanne and Piñeyro
parted ways for most of 2021. Ana embarked upon her first headlining tours across Europe,
North America, and Australia, quietly commanding large rooms. Python was a fixture in the
sleepless European electronic club circuit. Ana moved away from NYC and back to the Bay
Area. Alone again, they experienced the exhilaration and fatigue of the road. Their lives, and
the project, were in flux.

After a smattering of sessions on the rare occasions they found themselves in the same city,
Brian and Ana converged on Kranky label manager Brian Foote’s home studio in Los
Angeles in the summer of 2022. The songs were taking shape. Dreamy, densely layered
drum programming and atmosphere, redolent of Seefeel and Boards Of Canada, washed against jungle and oddball ambient landscapes. They listened to tracks-in-progress while
driving through the hills at night, lights flickering out in the expanse. The writing process was
entirely collaborative. Ana sang, Brian sang. They dashed off lyrics together, reflecting an
increasingly shared mental state. “You me you / falling in deeper blue / running through a
circle that surrounds you / mango jelly flowers all around you.”

Later that fall, the duo traveled back to Brooklyn for a last round of sessions with engineer
and producer Al Carlson (Oneohtrix Point Never, Jessica Pratt). Their longtime friend CZ
Wang (Parquet Courts, Huerco S.) mixed and finalized the songs in early 2023, and then a
name for the project materialized. Natural Wonder Beauty Concept was “something Ana saw
in the universe.” The self-titled album does not resemble the previous work of either artist –
Ana’s celebrated ~~~ EP and album; Piñeyro’s various releases as DJ Python and DJ Wey or
his recent EP with Ela Minus. Instead, it’s a sui generis work built block by block over two
years. It’s the longest DJ Python has ever worked on a record, and the shortest period of
time Ana has ever dedicated to a project.

Early on in Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, we hear Python singing for the first time, over a
woozy, Actress-influenced beat. He’s a portrait of alienation. “Isn’t it strange that I kind of feel
nothing at all,” he muses. Ana responds to Python’s call: “Wouldn’t you say that I’m a person…
giving you the time…” By the song’s conclusion, Roxanne’s vocals are an enveloping force
over a lilting street bass. “The project gave us a creative license of freedom,” the pair say. “It
was an opportunity to try anything out, whatever we happened to be feeling or influenced
by.” Python and Ana are both known for bittersweet, contemplative electronic music that
feels like a companion in quiet times. With their new project, the two artists have found their
natural, if unexpected, counterparts. Natural Wonder Beauty Concept is the sound of two
brilliant artists learning to be alone, together More