COPPERQUEEN is the musical alter ego of visual artist Zina Saro-Wiwa. She named her unique musical style folk ‘n’ bossa because it was born from her love of Brazilian music but also reflects her classical training, West African heritage and her love of folk music and electronica. “I’ve been writing music since I was 4 years old. But from my teens my music has clearly come from a place that deals with loss and heartbreak. A sort of exquisite pain that Brazilian music and also late classical composers seem to understand implicitly in their harmonic progressions. This is the music that moves me deeply. My songs often come out nearly fully-formed and they are from another place and another me that lives in a different realm.” More recently Copperqueen’s sound has incorporated experimental soundscapes from Nigeria introducing new beats and textures that break the mould of electronic music and the ballad form. “I’m interested in integrating my music practice even more to my visual and sound art practice. I want them to be in conversation with one another in a way they have never been before. And for that I have to mine my heritage in rural Nigeria but also my interest in the cosmic realm. The new music will reflect that but it is an ongoing exploration into what I feel to be my true spiritual origins.”