For our third instalment, San-Kofa presents a Latin-American inspired EP by Ão. The eight-track debut is a soothing, yet fascinating story about their search for connection, intimacy and the absurdity of life. With their combination of English and Portuguese lyrics as a critical element, and additional elements of contemporary pop and electronica, they have created a fresh and diverse range of sounds.

Brenda Corijn’s unique, delicate voice leads you through Ão’s intimate world of estrangement and saudade. Her elegant words are accompanied by Siebe Chau’s Brazilian and Argentinian inspired productions.

The A-side tracks were written during a pre-lockdown time, when Ão could still perform live, shaping their tracks while performing. These songs are a collection of acoustic and raw live-recorded material. For the occasion, they have invited Mart Flecijn (violin) and Gielis Cautaers (percussion) for additional production.

The B-side selection, on the other hand, consists entirely of tracks that Ão wrote and recorded during the quarantine. For over six months, Brenda was stranded in Porto, while Siebe remained in Belgium. Their ideas and sketches were emailed back and forth, building on each other’s recordings in an Ableton-collage like pen pals. This different process of experimenting gave birth to a whole new sound and gave their music another dimension. The EP concludes with an ambient remix by Empty Apartments (aka Jolan Decaestecker), a dear friend of the duo who was involved since the very beginning.