011 IVAANA x Sophie Bullen
The latest collaboration from IVAANA and Sophie Bullen comes at an auspicious moment, as spring fills us with warmth and excitement, chases the cold from our bones and fills the trees with budding growth. This glorious mix from Ivaana traverses sensitive and gentle scapes, guiding us into the new season. Sophie Bullen’s response to the mix is full of life, with remnants and many layers of what came before. Transformation is slow and steady yet palpable, welcomed and inevitable.
IVAANA
Bella Kocis, aka IVAANA, is the dj behind the latest mixtape for Space Cast, who’s music selection ebbs and flows from moody, expansive and ethereal sounds through to percussive and bass heavy electro and experimental and four by four. IVAANA’s selections for Chillout 3000 always evoked a deep relaxation, and this mix for Space Cast is no exception. It’s a time capsule that beautifully captures some lightness and creativity from a moment when we were forced into isolation and introversion.
‘During lockdown I was exploring different lighter sounds and was often drawn to more emotional tracks that I could connect with in what was such a weird time that was filled with many more sadder emotions.’
‘Metanoia’ by Sophie Bullen 2023 - created in response to IVAANA’s mixtape.
IVAANA inhabits different musical spaces from events to bars and their own home. One of their favourite ways to mix and slow down is through the freedom that ambient, instrumental and experimental tracks offer, with their wide ranging bpms and styles that can be put together in a single mix. Bella showcases this talent in their mixes online, most notably their recent mix for Her 他, a club focused mix that captures drums and percussive sounds that have threaded through their musical exploration.
‘Music really represents enjoyment and expression of self for me. I love looking back on my different phases of my musical interest and how it evolves and changes as I get older and in different circumstances. Listening to different tracks from when I previously was obsessed with them allows me to reflect and remember different times which I find can be very profound’.
Like so many of us do at this time of year, as Spring rolls around, Bella finds tidying and cleaning while music fills the house a great way to relax. ‘Getting back to baseline for me takes lots of forms but I think mostly I like to do small things like clean my room while listening to new music. It feels like a bit of a reset and that my brain can slow down. I quite enjoy tidying; you don’t have to think and it feels like a small achievement at the end.’
Check out more of IVAANA’s music via their Soundcloud or Instagram.
Tracklist:
Sophie Bullen
Jake Orrall & Kunal Prakash – ASMR1
Aes Dana – Grounds Around
asmr – Journey To Bermuda
Dieter Weberpals – Memories of Zizilele
Jazzanova – Introspection
The Future Sound of London – Dead Skin Cells
Depeche Mode - Useless (K&D Session) [Mixed]
Khan – Nowhere
Tosca – Naschkatze
Bluetech – Leaving Winter Behind
Peace Orchestra – Domination
The visual response to IVAANA’s mix tape comes from local artist Sophie Bullen. Her works of imagined forms and communing forces are metaphorically sewn together in an experimental and faithful nature and through a multitude of mediums, oil, polymer and watercolour. Sophie's new work, ‘Metanoia’, created especially for this latest collaboration, is layers upon layers of vibrant and interwoven forms that make up a pulsating, organic landscape.
‘With IVAANA’s mix filling the space it was time and time again that I came back to this process, to this canvas. With each song a changed impulse was there, announcing itself on the canvas. It’s all very relational, painting. The first interaction is all potential and I love its promise and freedom. I really appreciated the way the seamless sound selection set the tone, defining the pace and evoking an inspired and sensorial place to paint within’.
Sophie uses the natural ambient sounds of nature as she works, often painting outside whenever she can, to the soundtrack of the wind and trees and surrounding environment. When she is in the studio however, Sophie says she sometimes listens to Gregorian chants or classical music. ‘As a painter with attention to the work, I’m open, yet focussed in a way that lacks a certain sense of discerning agency beyond the canvas. I guess most artists would know the feeling; when an algorithm casualty occurs or the album ends, though you intend to change it, the timeless nature of the creative process has absorbed you deeper than you realise or can apparently escape from.’
Sophie speaks about her experience of painting and creation as ‘a process that reveals so much about the very nature of this life and the gift of creation.’
When I asked Sophie what helps her to reset or relax, she mentioned praying and reading scripture, as two of the most important things for her.
‘Sometimes getting back to baseline is having a clean and fresh space and a bountiful crisper and other times it’s writing at the cafe or walking through the eucalypt haven we live in.’
Sophie’s work has been shown in a number of group and solo shows including the wonderful exhibition and collaborative project ‘Between Painters’ by Charlotte Aldis. A group exhibition that showcased collaborative works between a number of female and gender diverse artists that was showcased in Backwoods Gallery in 2022.
‘Painting, to me, is having faith in what is to come, starting with firm foundations, not being blinded by vanity or bound by assumed perfection. It is committing and ultimately communing through earnest and sacrificial work; it is a true labour of love.’
You can find more of Sophie’s work on her Instagram.
Purchase a limited edition, fine art print here.