LIJO captures adventurous, literate songwriting in eccentric avant-pop with a sense of adventure and disregard of any rules except her own.
The balance between revealing your true self or living up to an image fascinates LIJO is one of the themes that keeps coming back in her music. Taking risks, making your own choices, questioning what is accepted and trying to change what’s to be considered normal is everything she stands for. She is constantly exploring her own boundaries in order to cross them. This leads to a journey that can be dark, cynical and sometimes icy, as well as playful and lighthearted.
Her untamable curiosity and urge to keep renewing herself are reflected in a live performance that’s always in motion. LIJO plays with beats and loops in her electronic set and is intrigued by working with guest musicians, though her songs are just as convincing stripped down to the naked core with only a piano and her characteristic vocals.
After spending a year working on her music in Berlin with singer, writer and producer Bled White, the first two-part ‘My Inner Parts’ was out in spring 2019 and supported by a spring tour in the UK. In summer of 2019 LIJO travelled to Scandinavia as she was invited to play the Gothenburg Culture Festival, followed by a fall tour through Germany and Poland in support of the release of 'Push Me', the first episode of follow up two-part 'My Every Part'. The last single 'Stranger Danger' concludes this journey.
The four singles form the 'PARTS' EP that underlines LIJO's creativity and wit. Being from a small village she grew up to be a self-taught pianist and songwriter with little knowledge of popmusic, which laid the foundation for her quirky sense of melody and lyrics and her genre-bending writing style. Having been the driving force behind cinematic folkpop band ILEN MER, launching her solo project under the alias LIJO marked the start of her exploration of electronic elements in her music. Opening doors to artists like St Vincent and Imogen Heap as well as Depeche Mode and Kate Bush, her music, still hard to put in a box, was soon labeled AVANT POP.
After 'PARTS', LIJO now keeps busy recording her solo debut album and ILEN MERs third record. Being restless and, in her own words, fickle and impatient, she also launched side project FOR GRANTED, which will bring a mini album in 2020 and combines her innate love for piano music and her black and white photography.
