Bio
Zola Mennenöh
Zola Mennenöh is a german singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, currently living and working in Berlin. In November 2020 she released her debut album „Longing for belonging“ on Brooklyn based label „figureight records“ by Shahzad Ismaily. The album brought her international recognition, such as a listing in The Guardian as xxxxx. and a nomination for the German Jazz Preis as Vocal Album of the Year 2021. In Fall 2025 her long awaited forthcoming album „A labour of Love“ is gonna be released on xxxxxx, re-introducing her as a ........
Zola Mennenöh is an independent, interdisciplinary thinking artist from Germany.
Her works engage with questions of identity, biography and the limits and possibilities of personal expression through the voice and the body. Driven by a deep longing of finding language to feel and express freely, finding freedom in structure,
Zola Mennenöh is a classically trained flutist, studied improvising vocalist, and composer of electro-acoustic, genre-bending works for film/documentary and interdisciplinary work.
vocalist, multi instrumentalist, composer, sound designer and researcher situated at the intersection of improvised, experimental contemporary music, avant pop aesthetics, media art and holistic, genre-bending thinking. Her practice engages with questions of identity, memory, belonging and the limits and possibilities of personal expression through the voice and the body.
Her practice engages with questions of identity, memory, belonging and the limits and possibilities of personal expression through the voice and the body. She is deeply concerned about creating spaces for freedom and connectedness, empowerment and truth telling, equality and coexistence, transformation, alchemy and feeling.
Educated as both in classical and improvised music, her music oscillates freely between structure and freedom, simplicity and complexity, reduction and detailed richness, earthy directness and fine elegance. Her works and co-collaborations create multi-layered, genre- and discipline-bending cosmoses. In 2020 she released her debut album “Longing for belonging” on figureight records and got highly recognized by an international audience: A nomination for Deutscher Jazzpreis 2021 in the category Album Vokal National, as well as a listing by The Guardian as one of the “BEST NEW ARTISTS IN 2021.
In recent years her interest has been drawn towards creating transdisciplinary work and using imagery as a strong component in her process. She’s been working with paper, fabrics, video, movement and installation and collaborates closely with filmmaker Hipermania (Malwa Grabowska), as well as Luke Pell (dramaturgy) and visual artists Manon Gignoux and Malte Zenses.
In 2021 she premiered her transdisciplinary, genre-crossing installative concert “A labour of love” as part of her Artistic Research Project, investigating concepts and the potential of softness, and love as a choice from a holistic point of view.
The music was recorded as her 2nd solo album and will be released in 2024/25. She collaborates closely with Simon Toldam, Halvcirkel and harpists Sissi Makropoulou and Kathrin Pechlof, as well as composer Max Andrzejewski.
In 2023 she was invited by Acht Brücken to present both “A labour of Love” and a commission “OHNE GARANTIE music for a future without guarantees” - a piece for chamber ensemble - at the Festival. The concert was recorded and featured by WDR.
In 2024 she’ll premiere her SOLO WORK “Mothering the earth” where she expands her identity into vocalist/instrumentalist/composer in a new rhythmic, avant-pop-ambient and an all electronic performance.
She gained her BA from Jazz Institut Berlin, her MA (Music Performance) and her Advanced Postgraduate Soloist degree (Music Performance), both from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory Copenhagen.
Since 2023 she is a selected scholar from Stiftung Árvore. Zola Mennenöh is based in Köln.