"I look to me, I see the most ". Something like a thesis, this may be the clearest way to describe Alice Ustinova's process as a Toronto artist. In her first EP "At Night", she lets you know defiantly that intimate stories are being shared.
Growing up in Baku, Azerbaijan in the 90's, as a young dancer using music as an emotional outlet came naturally to her. Alice has always had an innate inclincation to expand and externalize her invisible movement within.
Applying her later education in English literature, as well as her self informed digital production skills, she created her first seven song compostition which is simultaneously raw and polished; sonically and lyrically. Binding these juxtaposed forces is her honesty and unique story. The core of her writing lies in the experience of expression - turning inwards to find meaning, to get close to the Self. In "At Night", Alice explored complex emotions like trust, relationships, solitude, and identity. Through an ethereal touch, it feels like happening upon whispers and tender feelings in the late hours of the night. The music is shifting dreamlike, but remains filled with gravitas.
Her next project, still untitled and in development, represents a different approach to expression. "You have to do the work to figure out what the work is". This mantra has inspired her evolution as an artist, and also hints at Alice exploring a less polished version of honesty as she moves ahead. She did the work for "At Night", and now, the path forward is not solely rooted in reflection, but in anchoring the Self to the tangible present and desired future. To further step into the vivid light of her purpose and let it illuminate her truth.
In learning how to use her voice as an instrument and how to transfigure her emotion into words, Alice found inspiration in both music and literature. Her words and tone are grown from the seeds planted by Stevie Nicks, Grace Jones, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Rumi and T.S Eliot.
Through studying and being moved by the sonics of The Art of Noise, J Dilla, Cibo Matto, and Prince, Alice understood that an artist is not indebted to structure, and that abstracts such as space and time, may be presented as a sound, too.
Alice's music is existential at its core. As she develops the sound that is reflective of who she is right now, her honesty remains a constant. In every medium pursued, Alice's art will continue to pull back the veil on the process of creating her Self; longing for it, unearthing it, reckoning with it.