Emika
| Emika | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ema Jolly |
| Born |
8 January 1986 Milton Keynes, England |
| Genres | Dubstep, trip-hop, experimental, electronica, techno, synthpop |
| Occupation(s) | Producer, Composer |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Labels | Emika Records, Ninja Tune, Ostgut Ton, Tectonic, Aus |
| Website | www |
Ema Jolly (born 8 January 1986), better known by her stage name Emika, is an English electronic musician of Czech origin (her mother is from Příbram) currently residing in Berlin. Her self-titled debut album was released in October 2011 via Ninja Tune and received generally positive reviews.
Emika, a classically trained musician who studied classical piano and composition, grew up in Milton Keynes, England. She started to make music at school (using an old sequencer program she found on a computer stashed in a cupboard) and waitressed to save up for her first Apple Mac and copy of Logic Studio. Emika received her Music Technology degree in Bath, then procured an internship at the offices of the London label Ninja Tune, where she worked for a month. As Bristol music scene was making a transition from drum and bass to dubstep, she went to the first parties organised by Pinch.
Speaking of the reasons that made her leave Bristol, Emika explained: "I was very ill, physically, I've had to have some operations which weren't very successful and led to more, and had a long period quite surviving from morphine, really... I was in bed for many weeks. And afterwards in Bristol I became 'the ill girl'... It was very difficult for me to recover and stay in that city". In 2006, she took advantage of a free flight to anywhere in Europe granted by her bank, as she got her account upgraded, flew to Berlin on her own and decided to stay there.
In Berlin Emika started working as a sound designer for Native Instruments, all the while honing her own ("uniquely haunting", according to AllMusic) musical style with her laptop, picking up ideas from the dance scene at the Berghain and Panoramabar clubs. Fünf, the compilation album of music crafted from field recordings made inside these clubs by Emika (who contributed her own track "Cooling Room" to the compilation), was released by Ostgut Ton, as part of the celebration of the label's five-year anniversary. Her job at the Native Instruments had an important role in her artistic development, too. "I am focused on the world of sound and the power of the human voice, the instant connections it makes with listeners, in music. In general I feel there is a lack of vocabulary in the field of electronic music", Emika later explained.
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