Admin l Friday, November 19, 2021
LAGOS, Nigeria – Afro-Jazz singer and songwriter, Nissi Ogulu, simply known as Nissi, releases a spanking new track titled “Hold”. Nissi, who is Spaceship Records’ first signing and it’s only female artiste yet, takes us yet again, to a happy place with her gift for storytelling and her uncanny ability to break musical boundaries.
‘Hold’ is a song that takes you back to the days where there was that someone or something that just seemed to have an inexplicable pull of you. While one cannot forget her distinctive signature fusion sound – a blend of highlife, Afro-Punk and Afro-Jazz along with her own twist, Nissi’s signature eclecticism drapes all over this new sound.
Produced by Telz and Washy Fire, ‘Hold’ is a brilliant sound that celebrates the different tones and textures to Nissi’s voice — the breathy, throaty phrasing of the lyrics — a slow takeover of emotions that you feel when listen to this melodic piece of work. With strings prominent in Nissi’s sound, shrouded in the new octaves to her voice when you think you’ve heard all of her range, Nissi has the inimitable ability to reinvent herself in a way that is pleasant to witness.
In an electric new video shot in London and directed by British born Nigerian & Egyptian photographer and creative director, Dalia Dias, to be released on November 19, 2021 on all streaming platforms, the ‘Hold’ visuals inspired by classic pieces, is a perfection; a simple story told by Nissi, woven with riveting scenes that tell you exactly what you need to know about ‘Hold’.
“From the moment I started to make this song as always I could visualise this choreographed movement of being in a maze with someone pulling at you while you try to find your way through all the obstacles in the escape room and after walking through a few treatments with directors, I was in love with the simplistic yet so beautiful and apt portrayal that the video gave in the almost broadway-esque setting of a musical performance in one take to capture all the feels and emotions”.
“Always on the lookout for ways to explore her musicality, Nissi curates smoky, soothing and groovy — making ‘Hold’ an honest fusion of sounds. “I think we can all relate in some way. When I made this song, the chorus was the first thing that came to me drawing from that exact feeling which the instrumental gave me.
“Personally, I hate not to have control over things that concern me so naturally anything having a hold over me is a rocky place to be so I sang about what that experience could be and feel like. One thing I really really love about the record is how every time I listen to it, the lyrics really take me away into a world that matches the words of the song” L
