Fashion
When fashion flattens, social media inflates: the revenge of the package
Alessandro Milzoni
05.08.26
Music
IN CONVERSATION WITH: EHUA
words: Luca Menanti
02.06
May 2nd is out Panta Rei, Ehua's first album. Sixteen years spent in London, a brilliant career as a DJ and producer and the need to open a new chapter. Because this time, Ehua let her voice lead the story.
Panta Rei It's a record that delves into emotions and personal history, but doesn't give up the strength and physicality of the dancefloor. A work in which electronics become more material, more intimate and human.
A 360-degree concept, which includes a short film, a thirty-two-page booklet and the extraordinary concrete work created by Jeroen Erosie and photographed in the album artwork, to give the public not only an album, but a world.
We talked about it with Ehua a few days before the release: a sincere chat, between memory, research and new beginnings.
What does this album mean to you? How did it come about? What does it represent, both in your artistic journey and on a personal level?
I would say that this album is a natural evolution of what I have done so far. It is both a point of arrival and a point of departure. From a technical and production point of view, I feel I have reached a certain level of confidence, a mastery that I consider a goal. But at the same time, it represents a beginning for me: I want to open new doors, explore territories that until now I had kept more in the shadows, and bring out all the nuances of my musical identity. I have been making electronic club music for many years, and this aspect will continue to be part of me, because I grew up with it and I feel it deeply. But at the same time I have always cultivated a more experimental, more melodic side — I would almost say singer-songwriter — that for a long time remained in the background. Only now have I found the right awareness to give it space, to really let it come out.
It was also a very personal journey, because I produced the entire album by myself, here in my home studio. Where you see me now, on this chair. And this meant facing a parable made of many ups and downs, of insecurities, of very intense daily practical work. On a symbolic level, it represents a sort of completeness: it is the point where I feel really close to what I want to be as an artist, but also as a person. In particular, using my voice was a profound change. It is something I have always done, but in private, almost in secret. Only through a personal journey — also emotional — did I find the courage to really do it, to expose myself. And to learn to accept, know and show my voice.
How did the concept develop? I imagine you also talked about it with Martyn. Did he encourage you to sing on this record? Was it him who wanted to give this direction to the work?
It was a bit of a weird thing. I had promised Martyn a new EP for his label, 3024. We met at Dekmantel in 2023, we were both in the line-up. He said: “Send me new music, let's make another EP”. clouds It had just come out, in February, and for me it was already a beautiful thing. I immediately started writing. He also played an unreleased piece of mine, Arya, right at Dekmantel, which then ended up on the album. It all started from there.
Back from the festival, I wrote Apricot. It was the first track that made me think: “Maybe this could come out”, among all those ballads I had in the drawer, productions where I sang, but that I kept for myself, as something personal. But then some time passed. It was August, and here we come to December: I still hadn't sent anything to Martyn. I had been through a complicated period, also at a family level, which had led me to a sort of burnout. Martyn writes to me and asks me: "What happened to the EP you were supposed to send me?"
And I said, “Look, I’ve produced very little club music. I’ve worked a lot, but on other things.” And I sent him a folder with 18 tracks… all of which were me singing backwards! He listened to everything and liked it a lot. He liked the way my voice sounded, but he asked me the “fateful question”: “Isn’t singing backwards a way to hide something? To avoid facing certain blocks, maybe on a personal or emotional level? Your voice is beautiful, and what you say deserves to be heard too”.
That question really struck me. Because it didn't come from a friend who gives you a compliment out of affection. It came from a professional I've respected for many years, since I started following him, around 2009. And for the first time I felt that someone really saw the potential of this more singer-songwriter side of me. It was a watershed moment. All the things I had experienced that had scared me, suddenly didn't scare me anymore. And that validation from him became a huge source of motivation. I started asking around, to singer friends, if they knew any vocal coaches. And in January 2024 I started working with Anya Ysabella, an extraordinary vocal coach. She accompanied me, step by step, on a journey of discovery: of my voice, of my range. I have a very low voice, which tends to go towards the low rather than the high — I knew it, but I had never really understood that I could treat it as an instrument to play, to use consciously.
That was the most important moment. From there, with Martyn, we decided to do an experiment: an album of ballads & bangers. Mixing my more club side with the more melodic, singer-songwriter one, in a fluid, almost imperceptible way. Of course, for a moment I thought, “Maybe I should create another alias, a new project, for this music that is so different in my eyes — or rather, in my ears!” (laughs) But he said, “No, it’s still you. It’s just a different expression of you.”
Actually, the title Panta Rei I had it in my head for a while. I found that word in my diaries already in November 2021. When we decided to make the album, I knew it would be called that. It is an aphorism from the philosophical tradition of Heraclitus, which I had studied in classical high school. A concept that had never been an active part of my path, but at that moment it had become a mantra: “Everything is fine. Everything will be fine. Things flow, they pass. And in the end you get over them, and you almost don't remember how much they hurt you anymore”. Panta Rei for me that's what it means. It was like getting to the top of a mountain and saying, "Okay, I did it. But not only that: I am this whole mountain." And I wanted this record to represent all that mountain. Some songs already existed, others were born right from the moment I gave myself permission to dig, to look inside. Like I took every rock I could find and said, “Okay, this is you. I’m holding you. Or maybe I’m throwing you away. Or maybe I’m putting you aside. But I know you’re there.” That was the process, and that became the concept of the album. An album that flows — between club atmospheres and more intimate pieces — in which I poured everything I had inside, everything that held me back from singing, from truly showing myself for who I am. It was a year and a half of work. And very, very important for me.
The short film of the album was shot in London and embodies the raw and industrial atmospheres of the city. Did you want to celebrate this whole part of your life that you have spent there so far, far from your family and everything that has accompanied you up to that moment?
Absolutely. Choosing the location for the film was a very immediate process, because I knew it was going to be Hackney Wick, which borders the neighborhood where I currently live, but where I lived for a lot of years. And I knew I wanted exactly that kind of aesthetic there, precisely because it's part of everything that is my journey as Ehua.
And I wanted to go back to being a child in this space, because for me the space of Hackney Wick, the space of London, is a space of empowerment that allowed me to become the Celine and Ehua that I am today. But I wanted to do a reverse path, which is what I do in the film: exploring the theme of transformation through four chapters (Rhythm, Language, Others, Movement ed.), going back to being a child, therefore putting myself in the shoes of a person who sees a series of things outside her little shell and wants to be part of it, but doesn't know how.
This happens at various points in the short, especially being under the table. The coat I'm wearing is my grandmother's coat, brought from Pisa, probably bought at some point in the 50s.
The mountain of clothes is a reference to “Venus of the Rags”, an installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto that was at the Tate Modern for many years and now no longer exists. The clothes in that mountain are the ones I have worn in Ehua’s photoshoots since my character has been public.
I wondered what the point of view from under the table was in the first moments when the dancers appear..
The table under which I am at a certain point in the film is a protection, a sort of shell. My favorite animal is the turtle for a reason: because I am one. But it is a table with a net on top, so in reality the light passes through. I want to get out, I want to be part of that dance – of which in reality I am already a part.
And precisely these four movements that you wanted to distinguish, these four phases within the whole album…
I am a person who loves language, I love languages, I love how much there is in a word. I love the fact that it is made of symbols that put together create something else. And the words I chose to describe the four chapters are words that have this somewhat chameleonic essence, in a certain sense.
And I wanted to bring out the multiplicity of aspects of life, even of single words, even of very simple, very basic things. I really wanted them to have an almost encyclopedic or dictionary aesthetic in the way they are presented. Just to explain science, so to speak, to explain these words with a diagram, to show the phonetic alphabet.
I taught English for many years, the phonetic alphabet allows you to pronounce words that you do not know. I think it is the most important alphabet of all, but it is known by very few people, very few use it.
So yeah, I mean, I wanted to try to bring out the complexity of things, because things are complex.
And I wanted to bring out all these questions that I have that I don’t have the answers to – and this pleasure in not having the answers.
Obviously music is at the centre, but then also images and words…
Absolutely. The vinyl comes with a 32-page booklet, where I go into even more depth on all these themes, especially those of the short, but also the artwork and a bit of the conceptualization of the album and the songs.
Because everything has a meaning and I'm so happy that the label has given me the opportunity to deal with all these layers of meaning in an expansive way.
And this was very, very important to me.
Tell me about Martyn, a very important figure in the electronic scene of the last twenty years. Despite his work being strongly focused on club sounds, by publishing this work of yours he has demonstrated a very multifaceted sensitivity…
I feel a great sense of gratitude towards him, not only for having believed in me, in my voice, in what is precisely my artistic attitude, but also for having been an inspiration to me, from Vancouver (song present in Great Lengths (ed. note) up to today.
People don't know much about his background, but he is a person surrounded by very different worlds. His program on NTS is my favorite jazz show, for example. On NTS he only plays jazz, his show is called The Darkest Light and it's fantastic.
In every context in which he places himself, he manages to bring a sensitivity and a depth of approach and thought that in my opinion makes him truly one of the most inspiring characters in today's scene. And then the program of mentoring that he carries out is the demonstration of how much he is not only there for himself but also for others. In a very individualistic industry like clubbing – even if in the underground there is a climate of spontaneous support and sharing among artists – I think his mentoring program is a very important point of reference for all those who want to approach the scene. So I am even more proud to work with a person who has this very generous approach to sharing and making art, because it is not something to be taken for granted in the music industry.
Was Panta Rei born from the need to give new perspectives to the club experience, as it is perceived and experienced nowadays?
Yes. For the simple fact that I think the way club music is consumed has changed in recent years. It's now much more based on the sensational aspect of the DJ, with the big crowds, with these very powerful moments of euphoria. The best memories, in my experience, are the ones where you are with your head down in front of the wall of speakers and the vibrations that give you goosebumps, with the people you love around you, the friends you went to the party with, and the artist who is giving you that gift in that moment.
No phone, no stories and if you look at each other it's to exchange a bass face, for example, right? I actually miss this thing. And let's say that I'm very happy with the path I've taken in the world of clubbing and I love it. The energy that playing in clubs gives me is enormous and I appreciate it so much. But I've always tried to have an original sound. I've always gone for the approach: when someone plays my track, when I play my track, I want to hear Ehua, I don't want to hear house or techno or a specific genre. I'm all for "everything flows", so actually this album is a bit of a step aside to break the mold, in a way.
Not that I ever felt part of the choir, because I worked to create a signature sound that is mine and that's it. But there was a bit of a standardization in terms of sound, from which I wanted to detach myself a little and recreate this world in which I play everything and I like to play everything, I sing everything, I produce everything. And sensitivity and being able to create new musical rooms through the hybrid is important. So I hope a little that this division of genres, here, which was brought back to the surface after the pandemic, will ease and we will go back to listening to a bit of everything.
A slightly more fluid and immersive experience, without necessarily looking for a specific mood even within a set, right? And giving artists the opportunity to express themselves…
Exactly. For me, going dancing has always been like a gym/therapy session, in the sense that you go to sweat, to be immersed in the moment, but also to leave everything behind, right? And in my opinion, well – I don't want to be that old lady, in quotation marks – but when you promote clubbing as a euphoric, sensational experience, even those who buy the ticket in my opinion are then disappointed by certain situations. Because it's a bit of a decoy, right? This thing about super DJs with super crowds…
So, in short, in my opinion we are giving importance to somewhat superficial aspects of what our world is, in recent years. And social media have contributed a bit to this thing here. I am not anti-social, for goodness sake. In fact, I love social media, they allow me to connect with the public, with other artists. However, they have created somewhat unrealistic expectations, and which also create a very large division between what is theheadliner and the DJ instead local, perhaps, but which often creates much more culture and education also on a musical and sound level.
In “Bricks” you say “say, do, kiss, letters, will”. Would you like to explain why you wanted to include this nursery rhyme in the album?
The reason I say “again: say make kiss letters will” is because in clouds there is a vocal on the contrary, it says “say, do, kiss, letters, will.” In that case, I meant play, happiness, lightheartedness. But now, when I say it, I mean that I take everything I say seriously. The saying, the doing, the kissing, the letters, the will, that is, with whom you interact, with whom you decide to play this game of life, right?
It's a bit of a cryptic message, but it was especially important for me to reconnect with the EP I made on 3024 before this album, because that was also a great turning point for me, of lightness, of awareness, which then led to Panta Rei, so the two works are inevitably connected, you know. And I wanted there to be a hint of the clouds that have passed.
Let's say that clouds he was a bit of a precursor in some ways… Absolutely.
About what you were saying before about having a signature sound, from what I understand you have also always recorded your sounds a lot…
I record almost all the percussion and everything that is hi-hat on a percussive level is recorded with pens, stones, salt… for example I created these shakers with Yakult bottles…
I also did an artist residency in 2024, in this studio called Willem Twee and I was very lucky to spend a week working with two of the rarest synths that exist: the Arp 2500 and the Arp 2600. Then they have a giant organ there, the kind that are built into the wall, which I recorded, and a lot of the bass lines on the album are done with the organ. It has these notes, these low tones that for me are from other worlds.
And then there are also a lot of machines, the definition of which in English is test measurement equipment. They are basically these machines developed and created in the 50s to test chips, but they produce a sine wave that you can, let's say, manipulate. For example, the whole soundscape of Pencils and Bunju it's made with those machines there. Even in System there are excerpts of these sessions of hours and hours that I recorded while fiddling with those instruments that were not actually created to make music. And this is very beautiful, because it ties in with the fact that in my practice I use instruments that are not necessarily musical. And it was a very beautiful process that inspired me a lot and then it became part of the album.
I'm a big fan of analog gear and I appreciate anyone who invests in that kind of gear. I've decided to create an approach that's more field recording based and I use a lot of virtual gear. I mean, I'm very in the box in the way I approach production but I also appreciate the other type of approach. Simply everyone creates their own field of action within their own possibilities, and these are my possibilities. I am a person who lives following the mantra of "necessity-virtue" and therefore from necessity I created a virtue, which is that of having this very varied and personal approach to musical composition.
The short film was also made entirely with my own money, that is, with my own means, with friends and people I have already collaborated with in the past. So in reality it was all very full circle. But here, the short film was made with very little for what it is and how it came out. So I'm very proud of this too. DIY approach all my life. Independent artist: struggling but happy and with dignity intact.
Are there any anecdotes related to the album that you would like to tell?
Some titles are also related to things from my childhood, or to references to cartoons. For example, "Bumju" is a little spirit animal in the cartoon Avatar: The Ultimate Airbender. Actually, the song talks about a situation that never happened, in fact I talk about other strings of reality. But it is inspired by a real situation. I was in New York with Masha (Sha Ru ndr), we went to a party and I had a huge crush on a boy I had seen passing by. But it had been a very difficult day for me because I had received some bad news from Italy. My head was somewhere else — “I have to go”, “the flights are too expensive” — but I was there in New York. I knew that this thing would never happen, but that moment stayed with me. I wrote it in my diary and then I made a song about it. So I had to find a title for this situation, something unreal but spiritual… it exists but it doesn’t exist.
Does a cartoon character exist in reality? For me, yes. I mean, Goku is a real person, if you think about it. But obviously he doesn't exist, you know?
Then there is a song called New York City...
New York has always been a dream. The reason I live in London is because I told my mom when I was 12 that I wanted to go to New York when I was 18.
Then I had to learn English, so I went to London first… and I stayed there. But New York is a city that inspires me a lot. It was a point of reference for me in terms of representation.
That song is actually about the fact that I had psoriasis for a period of time, which was due to stress — which is why I talk about these thoughts that I can’t shut up, and “they spill out in my body.”
For me, that song is a huge dichotomy, between the reality of being tied to a very physical and human dimension and the realm of dreams.
Another dream, which I never realized because I never had the perseverance to learn an instrument, was to play the piano.
And that day I sat down and started playing almost as if I knew how to do it.
The song was born in half an hour. The vocal came out all in one take, and it remained practically the same as the first version.
So I wanted a title that brought together dreams, reality, childhood dreams, adult dreams, the reality I had, the one I wanted… so New York City.
Then, there is candies, towards the end of the album, which suggests a restless atmosphere. There is also a field recording at the beginning, with voices…
Yup, candies It's the most painful song, in a way, of the whole album, because I talk about my family. It's all backwards, because I couldn't sing it "straight". The field recording you hear at the beginning is an audio recording taken from a videotape of my brother Matthieu's first bath, just after he returned home from the hospital. It was February 12, 1993. There I am, about three years old, splashing in the water, making a mess, asking Mom for soap because I'm trying to wash my doll… while she is actually taking care of my brother. E candies for me they are those good, sweet things - candy - that however give you cavities.
Because family is beautiful, but also a source of anguish and worries.
The song says that I'm okay only if they're okay.
And I chose that particular clip because Matthieu had a twin, Julien, who didn't survive. He should have been there, but he wasn't.
We are so happy that Matthieu is here, we are at home, we are taking a bath… dad starts again. But for us, as a family, there is an elephant in the room at that moment: something that is there, but you can't see it. These things flow too. I'm happy with my family, just the way it is, even without Julien, because we were meant to be like this. But Julien is still here.
Before me there was another brother, Philip. We are three, but actually we are five. We are not just three brothers. A lot of complexity to say that they are the most important thing: those who are there, those who are not there. I carry them all inside. They are my biggest vice — like candy, I am a big glutton — but also the greatest source of pain.
Because in the end we all suffer, but we pretend we don't.
And was it painful to watch the footage to record the voices?
No, it was very nice. Now, the description I gave you has very heavy negative elements, but we have always talked about it. We have always “had” the brothers who are not here at home, we go to visit them, it has never been a taboo. It's always been normal to talk about it and deal with it together.
