Background
TO. is a Swedish artist, discovering the scope of her debut EP, I am TO. Now living in London, TO. is Anna Melander’s solo project. A 24-year-old producer and songwriter from northern Sweden, there are a variety of surprising influences that inform her sound and inspiration.
When Anna was 12-years-old, she impressively was playing electric guitar and writing songs in a local indie band. Fast forward to the end of high school, and the group went their separate ways. At that point, she moved to Düsseldorf, Germany, where she encountered the iconic german nightlife and electronic music scene.
On her own, Anna began to experiment. Crafting a sound undeniably of her own, it was darker, innovative, and certainly special. Her debut single ended up being “I AM”, which was released over Soundcloud, and made a pretty respectable splash (~18K plays and ~500 reposts).
Difficult, however, is finding Anna or TO. on the internet, due to the nature of how her name as an artist is treated by search algorithms. We are taking special care to document all the actual places to find her work, as there are other musicians (for example, a flautist) that share her actual name, too.
Verdict
I am TO is a soaring collection, dripping in intrigue as it takes flight. Highly mystical, the experimentation builds off the darker soundscape. Although, at times, the energy of tracks like “Soul Sister” take off on a different path, yet still appreciated and fitting well in the collection.
“I Am” [3:14] is worthy of its first track placement, as it expertly develops the baseline for what is expected. The layering and evidence (via Soundcloud success) of its quality all play into a state of mind for a listener that is sure to develop a desire to hear more.
“Soul Sister” [3:12] is a totally different animal. Focusing more on the lyrics, and tossing in percussive elements and feedback at times reminds me of Florence + The Machine, vocally. Not a huge fan of some of its stylistic choices, it still is deserving of a listen and place on the EP.
“Down” [3:22] revisits the mysticism, and slows down the pace to its lowest position. Honestly, this is a formula that works rather well. I personally want more of this. Chill would be one way to put it, relaxing yet complex and purposeful is another.
“I AM (CVRL Remix)” [3:00] picked up much of the traction that the original found, also hitting above 10K plays on Soundcloud. Much more focus on the atmospheric touches, it is a good model for what the production could have been. The underlying bass structures are admittedly overdone, though. 3.5/5.
Support
As we earlier indicated, we worked fairly hard to ensure that we gave TO. fans and new listeners access to a double/triple-checked list of where to find her, with the confusion currently out there. Here we go:
Related
If you’ve given TO. a thorough listen-through, we felt you would really enjoy an artist that has finally picked back up where they left off. Elsiane’s first song in 4 years is “Unstable” and vaunts many of the mystical elements we love in I Am TO.
You can read about Elsiane and listen to “Unstable” here.
