#ajimal

Find a #ambientfolk song

I'll remember you always

Until the end of the last ember

'Til no one knows my name

As we crept into your bedroom

Let our fingers trace your sheets

With an air of still about you

That devout hue

Top Ten Songs of 2020

If this year has taught me anything, it’s that no matter how crazy things get, there’s always a song out there to keep you grounded. A little musical oasis to take sanctuary in when you lose your way. Each track here has in some way provided just the escape I needed at some point this past year, and hopefully they can offer you the same: (more…)

Top Tracks: AJIMAL – I’ve Known Your Heart

It’s songs like this that really make my job difficult. As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time weaving my thoughts about music into a verbose tapestry of…

Feature: AJIMAL – My 5 Biggest Influences...

For our latest ‘My 5 Biggest Influences’ feature, we spoke to musician and trained NHS Doctor Fran O’Hanlon, aka AJIMAL, who released his new record As It Grows Dark / Light last month, and was recently announced as a runner-up in this year’s Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent competition.

‘My 5 Biggest Influences’ is when we talk to some of our favourite upcoming and established artists, delving…

The soaringly beautiful, yet sparse, single features a driving electronic rhythm with overlaid dreamy piano textures and examines the frailty of memory. 

ANIMAL aka Fran O'Hanlon said about the single "How Could You Disappear?' is about memory and the idea of looking back on things that you might feel you could never forget, but which also inevitably warp and change with time. Memories are mostly lost, but they can also morph and swell into something completely different from the events that actually occurred. In the same way, some seemingly banal and insignificant things can persist for a lifetime. These can have a powerful impact on our subsequent behaviours, hopes and fears, for the most part in ways that we're totally unaware of."

A Doctor by day, Fran O'Hanlon acquired the name AJIMAL in the aftermath of being caught up in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Whilst working as a medic in a field hospital as part of his medical degree, he found himself surrounded by citizens from all walks of life, including an infamous guest preacher who formerly practised as a voodoo priest, under the guise of AJIMAL.

Although a classically trained pianist, O'Hanlon feels much more comfortable writing and exploring music by ear, rather than through the more rigid classical syllabus he grew up with, a discovery that has happily enabled him to combine a career in medicine with music. Hailing from Newcastle, O'Hanlon qualified as a doctor whilst recording his first album as AJIMAL 'CHILDHOOD' and works in London. He has played alongside the likes of Kathryn Joseph, Lucy Rose, Loney Dear, Lanterns on the Lake, The 1975 and Nadine Shah, his live shows encompass elements of both soaring grandeur and pin-drop intimacy. Ajimal will play a series of live shows ahead of his 2020 album release 'As It Grows Dark / Light'.