N E W S
“An emotive exploration of longing, forgiveness, and catharsis…exquisite and meticulous…Mennenöh should be considered a serious artistic force.” The Line of Best Fit
Copenhagen / Berlin multi-disciplinary artist and exploratory vocalist Zola Mennenöh returns with quietly smoldering new album A Labour of Love, a study of elegant, breathy, subtly experimental balladry that binds Baroquian pop, spoken word, and sound design into expressive songcraft.
Compelled to create a work exploring “the combination of extreme fragility and extreme strength,” Mennenöh speaks of “the fragility in daring to speaking your truth - even if not fully equipped, even if softly, but firmly - holding immense power. It slowly nurtures a true personal strength that needs no loud rebellion, fighting, or justification.” These themes are gracefully and artfully revealed over the duration of new album A Labour of Love, whose syntheses of delicacy and potency, of organic and digital, of songform and freeform, sculpts, in Mennenöh’s description, an iceberg hewn from silk.
Notes of Inspiration from Laurie Anderson, The Kronos Quartet, Joanna Newsom, Björk, and Danish contemporary composer Hans Abrahamsen colour a shimmering and gently powerful haze that embraces the record. There is radicalism, sophistication, and invention baked into its centre, its themes, tones, and textures held by a radiant gravity. The record is crafted primarily from near-drumless strings and synthesis, combining electro-acoustic and orchestral improvisation, and a marriage of instrumental passages and songwriting.
Known - and highly in demand - as a session musician in her native Germany and her adoptive second homes in Denmark, Zola Mennenöh is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer of huge talent. She has toured the world over, specialising in jazz, improvisation and experimental & avant garde vocal music, both as a performer and as composer. She is a multi-faceted artist, also working in film, visual art, dance, and fashion. Having additionally developed a strong sense for the visual and aesthetic expression of her music, Mennenöh created the sculpture, and designed and sewed the costume shown on the cover of A Labour of Love.
The record is released November 24th 2025 on Papercup Records.