iamamiwhoami ( ) is the
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
and
audiovisual
Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions.
Audiovisual service prov ...
project of Swedish singer-songwriter
Jonna Lee in collaboration with her longtime record producer Claes Björklund. The project has, since 2009, released audiovisual series on their channel followed by a large international audience. Visual collaborators of the project include Swedish director Robin Kempe-Bergman, until 2013, and visual collective Wave, consisting of Lee and cinematographer John Strandh, and formerly Agustín Moreaux.
Their videos in particular have spread
virally, and the project is notable not only for its artistic multimedia output, but also the creators' leveraging of YouTube and
viral video
A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
s to disseminate their music and the accompanying videos, garnering a
cult following
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
. In 2010, Lee founded a record label for iamamiwhoami, , which she runs. One of their videos, called ''"y"'' is listed at the first place of Google search under the search results for the letter "y", which generated more than 50 million views already, since it is the first link Google would get you to if the web browser does not autocomplete ''"youtube"'' properly. This slowly became a viral
internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
.
Since December 2009, iamamiwhoami's
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
s have been released in several series on the project's YouTube channel, while their music is available through digital music retailers. By May 2013, a total of 24 videos had been released on iamamiwhoami's YouTube channel. Running from an initial set of prelude videos to a series of full-length songs, the videos and songs form a continuous story featuring Lee as a protagonist. iamamiwhoami released their debut physical album, the audiovisual album ''
Kin __NOTOC__
Kin usually refers to kinship and family.
Kin or KIN may also refer to:
Culture and religion
*Otherkin, people who identify as not entirely human
*Kinism, a white supremacist religious movement
* Kinh, the majority ethnic group of V ...
'', in June 2012, while the initial full-length series, ''
Bounty
Bounty or bounties commonly refers to:
* Bounty (reward), an amount of money or other reward offered by an organization for a specific task done with a person or thing
Bounty or bounties may also refer to:
Geography
* Bounty, Saskatchewan, a g ...
'' (2010–2011), was released physically in June 2013. A third album, ''
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
'', was released in November 2014.
The project has also remixed songs for
Moby
Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...
and
The Irrepressibles
The Irrepressibles is the creative guise of British musician Jamie Irrepressible.
History
Formed in 2002, the Irrepressibles have released three full studio albums and six EPs. All songs are written by Jamie Irrepressible. According to the mu ...
, as well as performing live in
concert tours
A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...
revolving around the releases of ''Kin'', ''Bounty'' and ''Blue''. An online
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
"concert" in support of the ''Bounty'' series was streamed online in 2010, taking place in a forest. On 29 April 2015, a second online
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
"concert" in support of the ''Blue'' series was streamed online; this "concert" was released physically and digitally in September 2015 as ''
Concert in Blue
''Concert in Blue'' (stylised as ''CONCERT IN~BLUE'') is an in-studio live performance installation, also released as film, (the second live release) by Swedish audiovisual project iamamiwhoami, led by singer-songwriter Jonna Lee. It was release ...
'', and includes the first new iamamiwhoami song ("The Deadlock") since 2014.
In March 2017, Lee embarked on solo career as ionnalee, stating that it is continuation of iamamiwhoami, though "the two projects will not exist simultaneously".
In March 2022, Lee announced a new audiovisual album from iamamiwhoami, ''
Be Here Soon'', which was released on 3 June 2022.
Background
![Jonna Lee 20080607](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Jonna_Lee_20080607.jpg)
Musically, iamamiwhoami is the brainchild of Swedish singer-songwriter
Jonna Lee and her longtime record producer Claes Björklund.
Lee, giving an interview to Playgroundmag.net, stated that iamamiwhoami was born from "experiencing convention in its purest form", a reference to her previous releases as a solo artist.
Indeed, iamamiwhoami's musical and visual style is a departure from the guitar-led
alternative pop
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...
that Lee had previously created, although she acknowledges that "the change is probably more apparent from an external point of view."
Lee began developing iamamiwhoami in 2009 and started creating the music together with Björklund in real time with their releases in 2009–2010. Lee has explained they wanted it to "grow freely and
ear
An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...
the formerly
icby its roots and start over",
envisioning the ability to "physically visualize" their songs. Lee began collaborating with visual directors Robin Kempe-Bergman, Agustín Moreaux, still photographer John Strandh, and most recently, fashion and costume designer Mathieu Mirano, who are credited as part of the visual team of iamamiwhoami,
and Lee has defined the collective as being herself in a "collaboration with amazing people" that she loves, also stating "iamamiwhoami is not something
hecan shake off."
The process of forming iamamiwhoami began with "a need of change" and the fact that there were songs already in development.
Lee has acknowledged they are working with limited means independently through her label to maintain their creative freedom.
Since the upload of their first video to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
, the project's videos and music have been continuous and operate in "real time", and each song is completed just before being made available for viewing.
The first upload, "Prelude 699130082.451322" surfaced on YouTube in December 2009 and was the beginning of a since abstract storyline. Lee has said of this process "every time a production starts, it's being released very soon after to keep the conversation with the audience in the present. It's a chronological storyline of an evolution, from the very beginning up to now. I think the Internet is the place where you can do that."
Lee states that essentially, "the core of iamamiwhoami is our music, where the lyrics are the script for the story happening and being shared in real time. Then from that, it is expanded with imagery that reflects our development and current state as part of our chronological storyline."
Lee has expressed desire to break "the wall" between viewers and listeners.
iamamiwhoami is widely known for its secrecy.
As such, Lee's participation was not confirmed until August 2011, when she began giving her first interviews regarding the project. Lee has stated the project's name (pronounced I am, am I, who am I) was inspired by the fact that she "didn't really know what she wanted iamamiwhoami to be."
Lee finds that her "identity was not hidden but neither articulated by me because what is relevant is the work we have done and the audience reflection of my identity. "
Although Lee acknowledges that secrecy is essential,
she feels there is "a lot of communication from me
o the audienceall the time even though it's not literal."
Although "people realised pretty quickly that
hewas involved", she "chose not to comment on it, because
hejust wanted people to focus on what
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
were doing",
and to speak about who she is "as an individual, doesn't feel relevant".
History
2009–2011: First uploads and ''Bounty''
![Iamamiwhoami live at Way Out West 2011](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Iamamiwhoami_live_at_Way_Out_West_2011.jpg)
The first two iamamiwhoami videos were uploaded to YouTube on 4 December 2009, and were forwarded from an anonymous email account to a number of music journalists and blogs.
These videos continued and featured an unknown blonde woman whose face had been distorted, and displayed themes such as birthing and growth. Imagery associated with the
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
of the
mandragora (the flowering humanoid, berries, dogs used to pull out the mandrake, and semen of a hanged man) recurs throughout iamamiwhoami's videos. Each of the first six clips end with a drawing of a different animal (a
goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...
,
owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
,
whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
,
bee,
llama
The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era.
Llamas are social animals and live with othe ...
, and
monkey
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
). Having blogged about the videos,
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
journalist James Montgomery received a package by a messenger, which included a lock of blond hair, a piece of bark, and a pictogram of the six animals with the question "Says what?"
Furthering the mystery; the sixth video ("23.5.12.3.15.13.5–8.15.13.5.3383") ends with the woman whispering "Why" or "Y."
Each video displayed a numerical code as part of its title. When indexed into the alphabet, these spell out words such as "educational", "I am", "its me", "mandragora", "officinarum", and "welcome home". ''
Mandragora officinarum
''Mandragora officinarum'' is the type species of the plant genus '' Mandragora'' in the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is often known as mandrake, although this name is also used for other plants. , sources differed significantly in the specie ...
'' refers to the mandrake root, which when fresh or dry may cause hallucination and grows from a hanged man's sperm .
In 2012, Lee revealed their aim is to "let the work be in focus and push the boundaries of convention in different forms."
This initial stage of the project received positive, if skeptical reviews and many websites found themselves asking readers to guess the identity of the blonde woman within the clips. iamamiwhoami was speculated to be a project of many artists, including
Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
,
Goldfrapp
Goldfrapp are an English electronic music duo from London, formed in 1999. The duo consists of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals, synthesiser) and Will Gregory (synthesiser).
Despite favourable reviews and a short-listing for the Mercury Prize, their ...
,
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...
,
The Knife,
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...
and
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera (; ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Known for her four-octave vocal range and ability to sustain high notes, she has been referred to as the " Voice of ...
. The number series which were highly stylized teaser videos setting the tone of the project, established several mysteries, and served to foreshadow the projects' complete songs. For instance, "23.5.12.3.15.13.5–8.15.13.5.3383" contained vocally distorted lyrics that later appeared in the later song "o". On 25 November 2017, a full version of "13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110" was released under the side project
ionnalee, featuring the distorted full verse as the main chorus of the song "GONE"
The second "series"
of the iamamiwhoami project began with the upload of a full song and music video titled "b", one month following the final prelude video. Garnering positive reviews for its dramatic change in style and heavy use of a
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
as well as vocal distortion techniques, the song was the first to be uploaded to the
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
, being offered as a paid
digital download on 15 March 2010.
Although a "reveal" of the artist behind the moniker was anticipated, the videos showed a clearer view of Jonna Lee's face. Swedish media recognized Lee. However, Lee's previous North American management team
Philadelphonic
''Philadelphonic'' is the fourth album by G. Love & Special Sauce, released in 1999.
Critical reception
''Spin'' wrote that the album's "beach-bound grooves are well-trodden." ''Entertainment Weekly'' called it "sleeker and more streamlined tha ...
commented "If Jonna is involved in this, we have no knowledge of such."
Despite this, her involvement in the project was eventually thought to be confirmed with the release of the video for "t", in which her face was fully revealed without any makeup or distortion to conceal her identity. According to rraurl.com and
MTV Brasil
MTV Brasil was a Brazilian over-the-air television network owned by Grupo Abril focused on the youth. The network was launched on 20 October 1990, as the first specialty television network to broadcast over-the-air, becoming the local version ...
, "o" was directed by Viktor Kumlin, who is also the director of Lee's music video for "Something So Quiet". This proved to be false. As the seven videos with letter titles were slowly released, fans gathered that the videos were likely to spell the word "Bounty". Each of the seven videos begins with the corresponding sound of the animal, however, the animal sounds are not present in the released tracks. The conclusion of the live performance art event ''
IN CONCERT'' of 2010 reveals that the
onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
used to represent the animals' calls can be made to approximate the pronunciation of the English word "Bounty". On 7 February 2011, several registered songs on
ISWC were discovered to be closely related to iamamiwhoami. For example, songs titled, "Up!/Higher", "The Sound of Letting Go/Love", and "Little Hope/Sing a Song of Fire" all pertain to lyrics in iamamiwhoami's songs, "b", "o", and "y", respectively. The works were registered by Lee and Claes Björklund. These songs were registered around the same time as several songs from Lee's ''This Is Jonna Lee'' 2009 album.
In October 2010, iamamiwhoami requested a volunteer from the audience to be presented to them with their full name through a message video; no instructions followed. Fans of the project set up voting polls and presented a volunteer from the YouTube community with the YouTube username of ShootUpTheStation. One month later, on 16 November 2010, a live online concert was streamed on To whom it may concern.'s website where ShootUpTheStation was led through the forests of iamamiwhoami by Lee and brought to be buried and burned inside a paperbox. ''In Concert'' featured performances of both the preludes, ''Bounty'' and a new song titled "." and ran at one hour and four minutes.
In August 2011, iamamiwhoami played their first live show at the annual
Way Out West Festival
Way Out West is a three-day music festival held in Gothenburg, Sweden, during August that plays host to a variety of popular music artists mainly from the rock, electronic and hip-hop genres. The main festival is complemented with the club co ...
in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
, Sweden. After a long absence, they released the songs "; John" and "Clump" which was revealed to be an
epilogue
An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the w ...
to ''Bounty''.
As a conclusion to ''Bounty'', Bullett Media posted an interview article with iamamiwhoami for their Winter 2011 'Secrets' Issue. Questions were answered strictly with sampled lyrics from the current repertoire of songs, with some additional and unknown phrases purported to be lyrics for future musical releases. The article also included promotional images of iamamiwhoami, nude in the forest and posed among similar elements from "; John" and "T". The article is referenced to be written and photographed by iamamiwhoami. Following their performance at Way Out West, iamamiwhoami began recording and preparing their debut studio album.
''Bounty'' was critically well received, with Kathy Iandoli of
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
describing ''Bounty'' as having "portrayed a flaxen, ethereal goddess twisting her way throughout nature, while other
ideosincluded distorted imagery that housed industrial, synthy soundscapes set on fire. The combination was mysterious, yet alluring, representing a combination of horror film imagery with new age sensibilities. The titles to the songs were equally vague, ... numbers and clusters of words .... The videos never fell short of several hundred thousand views – and even much greater ... people obviously took notice."
At the
Swedish Grammis held on January 2011, iamamiwhoami won their first award in the category of "Innovator of the Year" ( sv, Årets innovatör), which had been newly inaugurated. An anonymous woman, later confirmed to be Nina Fors, the mother of Emil Fors, a Swedish musician who worked as production manager for the videos, received the award on their behalf and handed to the speaker an envelope with the words "To whom it may concern." taped in front. The content is revealed to be an empty piece of white paper. Before leaving, the woman acknowledged by saying, "Thank you. That's all I can say". iamamiwhoami won an
MTV O Music award in 2012 in the "Digital Genius" category.
2012–2013: ''Kin''
On 1 February 2012, iamamiwhoami's YouTube channel once again became active with the posting of the video "kin 20120611", which was sent to music blogs much in the same manner as the original release. This continued with each successive release in the ''Kin'' series. It was speculated that the title of the video pertained to the date 11 June 2012, using the Gregorian big-endian dating system most common in Sweden. The video was followed by the original music video in the ''
Kin __NOTOC__
Kin usually refers to kinship and family.
Kin or KIN may also refer to:
Culture and religion
*Otherkin, people who identify as not entirely human
*Kinism, a white supremacist religious movement
* Kinh, the majority ethnic group of V ...
'' series, titled "Sever", later the opening track on iamamiwhoami's debut studio album. The series consists of nine songs and videos, which culminates in "Goods" and is a continuation of the story arc founded by the original uploads, online concert and ''Bounty'' series.
Together, the videos form a collective film also titled ''Kin'' which was released in CD/DVD and has been screened at several European film festivals.
A digital download of each song was released to retailers one day following the YouTube upload. In terms of imagery, much of ''Kin'' contains large hairy creatures which interact with Lee throughout the narrative, which she explained as "represent
nga part of me and most others. Life with it is very much a delight. I have experienced the consequences of living without it."
The release resulted in the first interviews conducted by Lee in promotion of the album, for the first time describing the process of creating the iamamiwhoami visuals and music. She referred to the making of ''Kin'' in an interview with ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' as having been "nine months of hard labour".
Lee has also explained ''Kin'' "came to life after a close encounter with the audience at the first live concert in 2011" and called herself a "proud mother".
In preparation for the release, iamamiwhoami were signed to
Cooperative Music
IASCooperative, formerly Cooperative Music, often referred to as Co-Op, is a group of indie labels based in the UK but that have offices around the world, owned by IAS
Through their partner labels IASCooperative work with artists such as iama ...
, a British group of independent labels founded by
V2 Records
V2 Records (or V2 Music; V2 being an abbreviation for Virgin 2) is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007 and sold to IASin 2013. In the Benelux, V2 operates separately from PIAS, as the label bought itself out from ...
. The Italian branch of the label was the first to announce the release of the series as an album, which would be
audiovisual
Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions.
Audiovisual service prov ...
and distributed both physically and via
digital download on 11 June 2012.
and originating from the project's own label, "To whom it may concern.", a recurring phrase within both their videos and single artwork. This coincided with the launch of the label's first official website, which had previously been used to air the original online concert.
It was also discovered that iamamiwhoami is managed by the London-based D.E.F. Artist Management, whose roster includes other Swedish artists.
''Kin'' was released on 11 June 2012 in CD/DVD and LP/DVD formats through the label's website,
with the official release following on 3 September 2012.
Upon release, the album generated very positive review from critics, who praised the album's ambition as a collective as well as its style, incorporating several styles of
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
and Lee's vocals. iamamiwhoami was nominated for "The Best Tease of the Past 12 Months" category by BBC Radio's 6 Music Blog Awards, with fellow contenders being
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent ...
, Elliphant, Battlekat, Savoir Adore and
The Sound of Arrows
The Sound of Arrows are a Swedish electronic music duo originally from Gävle, and now based in Stockholm. The duo, consisting of Oskar Gullstrand and Stefan Storm, have remixed tracks for artists such as Lady Gaga, Alphabeat, The Naked and Fa ...
. On 2 March 2012, iamamiwhoami was declared the winner on BBC Radio by Tom Robinson, and the project received their first large airplay debut with "O" after the announcement.
This was followed by the release of iamamiwhoami's first airplay
promotional single
A promotional recording, or promo, or plug copy, is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as ...
, "Play", on 30 July 2012.
iamamiwhoami won the
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
O Music Awards
The O Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the OMAs) is an awards show presented by MTV to honor music, technology and intersection between the two. The 1st O Music Award ceremony was held on April 28, 2011 on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Veg ...
Digital Genius Award, fellow contenders being Amanda Palmer,
Gorillaz
Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, ...
, OK Go,
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
and
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (keyb ...
.
The project embarked on a European tour for ''kin'' in 2012, playing festivals and venues across Europe.
Originally produced and released in a series of singles throughout 2010 and 2011, ''Bounty'' was released as an album on 3 June 2013 on iamamiwhoami's label To whom it may concern, distributed by Cooperative Music, a group of independent labels. The first music video from ''Bounty'', titled "B", was released on 14 March 2010 on iamamiwhoami's YouTube channel, after which followed "O", "U-1", "U-2", "N", "T" and "Y". Digital singles were released shortly after each music video was uploaded to YouTube. The titles collectively formed the word "Bounty". While it was assumed that these songs solely consisted of ''Bounty'' track listing, in 2011 two more singles and music videos, "; John" and "Clump" were released and were not confirmed as belonging to ''Bounty'' until June 2012 when iamamiwhoami's YouTube channel grouped them into a playlist named "Bounty" along with the previous tracks mentioned.
On 4 December 2012, iamamiwhoami's label website To whom it may concern. was updated with a note on the front page which stated "20130603 – iamamiwhoami; Bounty", forecasting a physical release of the ''Bounty'' series. This was confirmed on the very next day when the Release section of the website displayed ''Bounty'' album cover art, along with its track listing.
iamamiwhoami embarked on a worldwide tour in support of ''Kin'' and ''Bounty'' in 2012 and 2013, including their first dates in North America.
2014–2017: ''Blue'' and ''Concert in Blue''
On 17 January 2014, To whom it may concern. and official networks were all updated with artwork that featured Lee in front of a waterfall beneath the title "Fountain". It was confirmed as a new single and released digitally on 22 January 2014. To whom it may concern.'s was also updated with a "Generate" feature, a donation service in which funds were promised to "be used for creative purpose only".
After the user donated, they were redirected to a page containing a gif image of a fish being released into a pond. Following "Fountain" were three singles "Hunting for Pearls", "Vista" and "Tap Your Glass", which were sporadically released on 25 February, 28 April, and 4 August, respectively.
On 8 July, the third audiovisual album was officially announced, titled ''
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
'', released on 10 November in exclusive physical and digital editions.
On 30 April 2015, the second live album/project (CD/DVD/book) was officially announced, titled ''
Concert in Blue
''Concert in Blue'' (stylised as ''CONCERT IN~BLUE'') is an in-studio live performance installation, also released as film, (the second live release) by Swedish audiovisual project iamamiwhoami, led by singer-songwriter Jonna Lee. It was release ...
'', released on 2 September 2015 in exclusive physical and digital editions. As with their previous releases, ''Concert in Blue'' was released with a picture book. ''Concert in Blue'' included songs from ''Blue'' as well as ''Bounty'' and ''Kin''. ''Concert in Blue'' would also see the release of the first new iamamiwhoami song since 2014 ("The Deadlock"), which was released as a single as well.
On 24 February 2017, Lee announced the release of her new solo single under the alias
ionnalee. "Samaritan" was released on 10 March alongside its accompanying music video. Lee also opened several new social media accounts to promote her solo endeavours. When asked about the future of iamamiwhoami, she said that the new project is a continuation of the collective, albeit "the two projects will not exist simultaneously".
2022–present: ''Be Here Soon''
On 31 March 2022, Lee announced an audiovisual album from the iamamiwhoami project, ''
Be Here Soon''. The first episode from the album, "Don't Wait for Me", was released the same day. It was followed by "Canyon" with Lars Winnerbäck on 7 April, "Zeven" on 14 April and "I Tenacious" on 21 April. The album was released on 3 June 2022.
Musical style
iamamiwhoami is considered to be an
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
act. Their music is mostly characterised by
Jonna Lee's "spiritual" and "ghostly" vocals as well as Claes Björklund's "lush and nuanced" production.
It has been described as
electropop
Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...
,
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
,
art pop
Art pop (also typeset art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre draws on pop art's ...
and
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
.
The duo has been compared to artists like
Portishead,
the Knife,
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...
and
Fever Ray
Karin Elisabeth Dreijer (born 7 April 1975) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer. Dreijer was one half of the electronic music duo the Knife, formed with their brother Olof Dreijer. Dreijer released their debut solo album under ...
.
Ben Hogwood of ''
musicOMH
MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.
History
MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...
'' compared Lee's voice to those of
Elizabeth Fraser and
Siouxsie Sioux
Susan Janet Ballion (born 27 May 1957), known professionally as Siouxsie Sioux, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. She was the lead singer of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees (1976–1996). They released 11 ...
.
Influences
Jonna Lee stated that she is influenced by
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...
,
Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrum ...
,
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting).
Depeche ...
,
Christopher Nolan
Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Cinema of the United States, Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. ...
,
Air
The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
and
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...
. She also added that she enjoys listening to
Blood Orange
The blood orange is a variety of orange ( ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'') (also referred to as raspberry orange) with crimson, almost blood-colored flesh.
The distinctive dark flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanins, a family of polyp ...
,
Arca,
Denis Villeneuve
Denis Villeneuve (; born October 3, 1967) is a Canadian filmmaker. He is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award (formerly Genie Award) for Best Direction, winning for '' Maelström'' in 2001, '' Polytechnique'' in 2009, ''Incendies ...
,
Chromatics,
Four Tet
Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting UK albums such as '' Rounds'' ( ...
, Björk,
Todd Terje
Terje Olsen (born 1981), known professionally as Todd Terje, is a Norwegian DJ, songwriter, and record producer. His stage name is a homage to house music producer Todd Terry.
Called "King of the summer jams" by '' Mixmag'', "one third of the H ...
,
Disasterpeace
Richard Vreeland (born June 29, 1986), better known by his stage name Disasterpeace, is an American composer and musician. He first got started in music after learning the guitar in high school and started writing music around the age of 17. Kno ...
and
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
.
Members
;Music
*
Jonna Lee – vocals, instruments, songwriting, production
*Claes Björklund – instruments, vocals, songwriting, production
;Visuals
*Jonna Lee – direction, art direction
*John Strandh – direction, cinematography, photography
;Former
*Robin Kempe-Bergman – direction
*Agustín Moreaux – art direction, costume design, direction
;Timeline
Videography
Other videos
These videos are not musical releases and were deleted on 16 November 2010.
* "20101109"
* "101112"
* "101112-2"
* "101113"
* "101114"
* "101115"
* "http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/"
* "101115-2"
Discography
;Studio albums
* ''
Kin __NOTOC__
Kin usually refers to kinship and family.
Kin or KIN may also refer to:
Culture and religion
*Otherkin, people who identify as not entirely human
*Kinism, a white supremacist religious movement
* Kinh, the majority ethnic group of V ...
'' (2012)
* ''
Bounty
Bounty or bounties commonly refers to:
* Bounty (reward), an amount of money or other reward offered by an organization for a specific task done with a person or thing
Bounty or bounties may also refer to:
Geography
* Bounty, Saskatchewan, a g ...
'' (2013)
* ''
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
'' (2014)
* ''
Be Here Soon'' (2022)
;Live albums
* ''
In Concert'' (2010)
* ''
Concert in Blue
''Concert in Blue'' (stylised as ''CONCERT IN~BLUE'') is an in-studio live performance installation, also released as film, (the second live release) by Swedish audiovisual project iamamiwhoami, led by singer-songwriter Jonna Lee. It was release ...
'' (2015)
* ''Konsert'' (2021)
;Compilation albums
* ''Kronologi'' (2020)
;Airplay and promotional singles
* "Play" (2012)
* "Goods" (2012)
* "Y" (2013)
* "Chasing Kites" (2014)
* "Fountain" (2015)
* "Thunder Lightning" (2022)
;Remixes
* "After" (iamamiwhoami remix) by
Moby
Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...
(2011)
* "New World" (iamamiwhoami remix) by
The Irrepressibles
The Irrepressibles is the creative guise of British musician Jamie Irrepressible.
History
Formed in 2002, the Irrepressibles have released three full studio albums and six EPs. All songs are written by Jamie Irrepressible. According to the mu ...
(2013)
* "Gone" (iamamiwhoami remix) by
ionnalee (2017)
Awards and nominations
References
Further reading
Niall Byrne: Best ever viral project?The Mysterious Allure of Bands with Secret Identities
External links
*
To whom it may concern. (label)
{{Authority control
2009 establishments in Sweden
Art pop musicians
English-language singers from Sweden
Musical groups established in 2009
Musical groups from Stockholm
Swedish music video directors
Swedish synthpop groups
Viral marketing
Swedish women in electronic music