About
ACRAEA is a Brooklyn-based synth pop duo, consisting of co-composers Leora Mandel (vocalist), and Samn Johnson (production). Their upcoming single Clockshifter is the third from a lyrically-driven concept record telling the story of a queer sci-fi/fantasy romance in English and Hebrew. ACRAEA’s music centers warm, playful vocals and brims with custom synth timbres, field recordings & found sounds, and glittery, idiosyncratic textures. Leora and Samn met at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and later moved to NYC where they continued to work together and develop their sound and friendship. Outside of ACRAEA, Leora is a practicing psychotherapist based in Brooklyn and Samn a producer/teacher.
Clockshifter is out on October 15. It continues the story (related in their first two singles) of an engineer who enters a passionate but unhealthy relationship (Limerence), and later discovers her partner is cheating by finding a stranger’s hair under his pillow. She lives in a future where she can use this morsel of genetic information to build a clone of his lover in order to find out who they are, and does so, culminating in a night out dancing with the new acquaintance (Ions). Clockshifter is the furthest out in the chronology so far. In it we meet this clone, discover her deepening romantic relationship with her creator and her talent for design, then see the two build a time machine together on a remote beachside. The full EP and complete story will be released in 2022.
about Limerence
Their second single, Limerence, is about that scary part of falling in love where you’re excited to miss the other person for the first time while you’re apart. It can feel intoxicating, and it can feel like it’s all happening too fast. “Can I take my time? Yes. Can I take your time yet?”
The narrator speaks about the love language of quality time, and how within it the first person to bravely show vulnerability—“When all you need is blue, I lift my shirt, show you my bruise”—can make it safer for the other to lift their armor as well. The first show of vulnerability can be everything from vocally sharing intimate thoughts and histories, to letting the other see your mortality (sickness or injury), or to witness you in a state of bliss.
Throughout the song, she becomes aware of the addictive aspects of infatuation, and to protect her independence, asks for more space even though it goes against the message of every chemical in her body. “I hate to swim in place, help me, ask me for some space. I hate to swim in place, hurt me, ask me for some space. Oh terrible line we press towards our spines, towards.
about Ions
In the narrative of the bubbly electro pop debut single “Ions”, an engineer isolated in a manipulative relationship finds the hair of another woman under her partner’s pillow case and realizes that though the object is small, it contains a wealth of information. Enough information, in fact, to build a clone and meet this mystery woman face to face. She begins the song feeling stuck inside while her partner is out, and ends it out dancing herself with a beautiful new connection who shares much in common.
