Monefa Walker debuts with 'Aries'/'Aquarius'

Mid-March 2020 onwards feels like we’re extras in a dystopian movie. In February 2021, #TheZineUK’s own MONEFA WALKER has the score.

‘Aries’ and ‘Aquarius’ are classical piano compositions and performances by astrologer, Monefa Walker. The recordings have arrived to soundtrack the drama of our lives in a rapidly unfolding (unravelling?) new world.

These pieces literally sound (to me) like a melancholic lantern festival rounding off 2021’s Lunar New Year followed by an imminent Spring welcome for the Snow Moon. I don’t know if that is just the synchronicity that weaves our tapestry, but it’s where my mind went.

Released independently on Lil Minx Records, ‘Aries’/’Aquarius’ was recorded at London’s West Kensington Studio, mixed by Thomas Rickerby and co-produced by Anita Maj.

The artwork is by multi talented artist, Emma Whitworth (a.k.a. Judy Jones, drummer with garage punk powerhouse, The C33s). This single is musical fluidity in action. “You don’t have to be stuck with one genre” Monefa Walker.

Some of TheZineUK readers may know Monefa as one of our writers (interviewed Garbage, The Mysterines, Calva Louise, reviewing Fontaines D.C. etc - among much more). At our most recent Music People Party, Monefa (a rocking, live music promoter in her own right) compered our punky artists, allies and freelancers end of year social.

From #TheZineUK doc’s Slideshow 1: Talented friends in our documentary’s tapestry: Monefa with artists, Sandy K. Moz (one of our photographers) and Jake Elliot of False Heads who were headlining Modern Age’s night, December 2017.

Maybe I’m biased because as Live Events Department of this documentary (ArtBeat Promo) Monefa has been such a force for good in shaping it’s association with so many key artists, events and co-promotions since 1st April 2017 inception. Such a rich allumni who also allow us access to diary their story. In turn the now and next fuse with inspirations from previous decades. Monefa has Mansun in her raising and we have Paul Draper in ours.

Photography by Keira Cullinane

When TheZineUK talks of the newer wave and music women, it’s the reality of the next music industry being driven by a more diverse force than the end-of-20th-century model that some still cling onto by their finger tips.

If anything, the pandemic has shone a brighter light on the fact that the fertile environment’s innovation is driven by the energetic DIY suss and necessity of the grassroots circuit community united by the #SaveOurVenues campaign.

Part of this Happening, Monefa Walker has an album in the wings. “Essentially it’s twelve preludes, no more than two minutes, every prelude represents a zodiac sign” she explained when interviewed by Louise Schofield. Her introduction to the general public, with ‘Aries’ / ‘Aquarius’, is a credible one. “Astrology never sounded so good” (Anita Maj)