Arya Zappa - A Study of Dreaming Habits (2022)

“A Study Of Dreaming Habits” is the second album from enigmatic art-rocker Arya Zappa. After receiving an Anchor award nomination and radio play from BBC, WDR, and Radio Eins in 2020, she returns with a fresh Italo-disco-tinged sound. The songs are punchy and spacious; perfectly balanced slices of elegant songwriting passed through the expert hands of Radiohead and Arcade Fire engineer Mikko Gordon. Sonically, Zappa has developed her musical palette from her first album, smashing together influences as far and wide as the Pet Shop Boys, Echo and the Bunnymen, 90's French House, and Italian 70’s psychedelia.

Zappa’s distinctive drawl is Tying everything together, painting pictures of lost loves, summer winds, and burglars stealing kisses. Her penchant for playful storytelling can be heard especially in ‘Berlin’ - a love letter to her home city written during a bitter winter lockdown. 'Let the darkness wash away' Zappa croons as the song breaks into its joyfully melancholy chorus; 'We'll live again, we'll live again. Another standout is ‘Saturday,’ an Italo-Disco synth-pop study in dance-floor decadence.

There's a cinematic quality to each song. At times you feel yourself lurking in dark city streets, other times surrounded by the shining lights of opulent nightspots of old. You can feel the looming presence of 70/80s Italian Horror cinema in Zappa’s mind. ‘Kiss Me Awake’ is full of color and horror, paying homage to Suspiria director Dario Argento and his most frequent musical collaborators, Goblin.

Zappa's unique vision has been accompanied by three upcoming videos, written by herself and shot by Emmy award-winning cinematographer John Tattersall. Each is another window into the character of Arya Zappa, a character who only exists here in these songs and videos. Her home, in the hinterland between the hyperreal and the surreal, between a vision and madness. Her music, between the past and the present. Though Zappa is a pseudonym, it’s clear that she’s being employed to find some deeper truth of the person behind her and her place in reality.