wazzara is:
Barbara Brawand: vocals, rhythm guitar, composing
Mäsi Stettler: lead & rhythm guitar
Tom Kuzmic: lead & rhythm guitar
George Necola: bass, composing, producing
Deniz Lebovci: drums
Come, friend, close your eyes…
Let yourself be transported to an enchanted forest scene, draped in twilight. Moonshine permeates the boughs above, casting your surroundings into undulating shades of bright silver and haunting dark, rippling shadows dance along as the music enfolds you, pulling you into the arms of the waterborn, of wazzara.
Uniting Post-Metal, Doom and Psychedelic Rock, wazzara is the culmination of a themed solo project from the former lead singer of Folk Metal band, Caladmor. Taking inspiration from the natural poetry of water in motion, enrapt listeners have found themselves moved by the otherworldly, ethereal and magical offerings of Swiss-based composer/songwriter Barbara Brawand since 2015.
In 2019, Barbara collaborated with a kindred spirit in the form of Icelandic composer and musician, Árni Bergur Zoëga (Helrunar, Arstidir Lifsins, Carpe Noctem), to give the world wazzara’s first EP. A show quickly followed in early 2020, alongside Grift and Wolcensmen, the first and last to grace the stage before a long and terrible silence descended over the concert industry.
Nevertheless, instead of allowing weeds to choke the banks of creativity, wazzara has continued to wind its course and meets this year’s end having grown even stronger and become a full band with Mäsi Stettler (ex-Caladmor) on guitar, George Necola (Between Giants) on bass and Julia Kapp (Dead Milly) on drums.
The now initiated writing process led to exploration of wider musical horizons, incorporating spellbinding, doomy riffs into the EP’s legacy of melancholic, dreamy and celestial soundscapes. The water-bound concept has been extended to uncover unaffected but fragile lyrics dealing with vulnerability and feeling out of place in a world where sensitivity is considered a weakness. A moon motif nurturing untamed, sacred femininity has also been woven into spells for healing old wounds.
Inspired by nature’s infinite wandering phases, wazzara’s first full-length album Cycles praises the end that is always a beginning. Recording was finalized in May 2021, with mixing by Lewis Johns of The Ranch Production House, London, and mastering by Jonas Ekström at Northmastering in Stockholm, Sweden.
As everything is always subject to constant change, for wazzara it was above all the role on the drum. Julia had to give up the band at the beginning of 2021 due to time constraints. In order to still realize the recording of Cycles, the band was gifted with drums played & recorded by Andrei Jumugă, member of dordeduh, Ordinul Negru and many other fantastic projects.
No rest for the wicked, they say, and soon the wazzara coven expanded in 2021
with Deniz Lebovci (ex-Disparaged) on drums and in 2022 with Tom Kuzmic (Disparaged, Amputate, ex-Cataract) as a third guitarist.
By the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 the band recorded three new songs,
which were released as EP Ombreine on April 30, 2023. Mixing was done by Andy Rosczyk at Goblin Sound Studio, Cologne, and mastering once more by Jonas Ekström at Northmastering in Stockholm.
The latest wazzara release features three songs telling of transience, the vanity of existence and of archaic visions.
Always both dreamy and fierce like unrestrained, roaring streams of water, the
band can today be witnessed live near and far. In addition, and since the beginning
of wazzara’s history, Barbara has been performing her ethereal acoustic songs as a solo act to this day. And so may the journey unfold…
words by Jaleesa Eves & wazzara