Born in Poti, near Lake Paliastomi in Georgia, Nino Gvilia is a singer-songwriter whose lyrics range between ecology and politics, bodies and love. Her songs are influenced by folk and minimalism and make use of magnetic tapes, field recordings, vocal samples of contemporary thinkers and an array of weird instruments and vintage textures, drawing an intense dreamlike atmosphere. Nino Gvilia has just released her debut digital EP Nicole via Hive Mind Records (UK) that will be followed by Overwhelmed by the Unexplained, respectively side A and side B of a vinyl that will see the light of day on March 8th 2024. The project started getting noticed by radio stations and webzines since the BBC played the single Nicole during the Late Junction programme. But, despite this… Nino Gvilia does not exist. She is a fictional character composing, answering interviews and living in mockumentaries, invented and performed by sound artist Giulia Deval to reflect on question such as: is it still possible to convey sentimental and political content through songs? How does this need relate to the saturation of the mainstream and its mechanisms?

The double album is the result of Deval / Gvilia’s collaboration with multi-instrumentalists Zevi Bordovach (keyboardist formerly for Andrea Lazlo De Simone and Francesco Bianconi) and Pietro Caramelli (Dutch-based electronic guitarist and composer); with violinist Giulia Pecora and cellist Clarissa Marino and a small choir of voices. The tracks has been recorded by Paul Beauchamp who took care of mixes together with Pietro Caramelli.
Enjoy Nino Gvilia’s selection!

Her Mixtape:

Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka – Lilieae

“Let’s start with somethig softly… “fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning” quoting one of my youthful legends, Bert Jansch. A friend suggested me this track after listening to my first EP, “Nicole”… almost all the tracks on this list are actually the result of conversations.
I remain silent in front of this entire album by Sophie Birch & Antonina Nowacka. Heart speaks.”

Jenny Hval – Renée Falconetti of Orléans

“Renée Falconetti is the magnetic actress who impersonates Joan of Arc in the “La passion de Jeanne d’Arc”, a silent film from 1928 directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Antonin Artaud. Although it is not certain, January 6th is commonly accepted as Joan of Arc’s birth date and I like it because it is also my birthday. “Epiphany” and “manifestation” are opaque words with elusive meanings, but Renée Falconetti’s gaze, more than ninety years later, it’s definitely an epiphany… how else to describe it?
Discovering that one of today’s most brilliant artists, Jenny Hval, has written a song about Renée Falconetti of Orleans, was an epiphany, too.”

Lula Pena – Acto I, Troubadour

“I want to continue with an artist I’ve listened to live and who deeply touched my insides. As beautiful as her records are, they are nothing compared to the molecular upheaval that her voice caused in me that evening. Fado singer, composer and poet, Luna Pena is the tongue of fire that instantly allows you to understand all the languages she sings in. The use of field recordings in this track certainly influenced me for the two tracks Diaphanous and the strange canon Forests, Quatrain (inspired by Eduardo Kohn’s book How Forests Think) contained in Nicole.”

Space Lady – Major Tom

“That same night, after the concert I went as a crazy fan to talk with Lula Pena. I don’t really remember what we talked about, but at one point she told me that her “imaginary mother” was The Space Lady.
Do you know her? I didn’t, but later I wanted to feel like her daughter too.
Psychedelic pop, an unforgettable look, really spatial and amiably trash, a super equipped busker born in 1948.
Here covering Peter Schilling’s Major Tom. Sorry Peter, I never listened to your version again.”

Johanna Hedva – Beauty (feat. Simone Weil)

“This track is also the result of a conversation with a friend who introduced me to the complex poetic universe of Johanna Hedva. The use of the resampled voice of Simone Weil of this song inspired Dirty is just what has boundaries, a choral song contained in Overwhelmed by the Unexplained where the voices of biologist Lynn Margulis and anthropologist Anna Tsing appear, in some sort of conversation.”

Amparo Ochoa – La Maldición De La Malinche

“Proceeding by analogies, since the friend who suggested Hedva’s Beauty is Mexican, I put here the song of a Mexican singer-songwriter that I discovered recently, belonging to the Sixties movement “Nueva canción”. Amparo Ochoa wrote songs with strong messages against social injustice as well as songs about Mexican history and culture. Most of her lyrics focus on poverty, indigenous rights, and women’s rights.
One of them has in its title the name of Malineli Tenepatl, better known as “La Malinche”, Hernán Cortés’ lover and interpreter from the native language of Nahuatl.
I suggest you to read her biography as a translator in this particular context of colonization… we can learn a lot from La Malinche’s story…”

Selda Bağcan – Bundan Sonra

“I put a last angry song by the Turkish singer-songwriter Selda Bagcan as an example of all those who feel the need (contemporary, for the Selda of the 70s, anachronistic maybe for us) to compose songs from decentralized perspectives thinking that is still possible to affect listener’s desires through a song. Please, be angry and stay angry”

Nicole is out now on Hive Mind Records. A second EP, Overwhelmed by the Unexplained will be out in March. Look HERE for more information on Nino Gvilia.