FPA
FPA (Saint Paul, MN-based artist Frances Priya Anczarski) premiered her tender new single “Summer” via Paste Magazine, alongside a Brice Sawyer-directed video that collages scenes of the songwriter around her apartment and hometown. Her first release since 2021’s acclaimed Princess Wiko LP (37d03d Records), the track’s gently finger-picked guitar lays a gorgeous foundation for FPA’s wistful and evocative vocals, as the soundscape gradually builds with engrossing dance and R&B flourishes. “When it’s cold and dark and my face is numb, I think of Summer, and the prairie, and his smiling eyes,” says FPA.
Princess Wiko earned FPA fantastic press from The New York Times (Playlist), NPR Music, Bandcamp Daily, WNYC New Sounds (Soundcheck session), Consequence, Brooklyn Vegan, BUST, and many more.
Born in Minneapolis to a Nigerian mother and Polish father, Anczarski established much of her creative vision in Paris, where she spent six formative years on her own studying music and philosophy. “It was a really influential experience because I was surrounded by talented musicians at the time, and constantly learning new things—from the electronic and house scene in particular,” she recalls. While her influences range from Nietzsche to Billie Holiday, and Dostoevsky to Max Richter, it is Anczarski’s musical and emotional intuition that informs the shape and color of her art. No vocal style nor instrumentation is off limits, and a slow beauty emerges from her music. The narrative ambiguity and emotional force of her work shares a thread with all great art: no matter what specific topic the project is about, its mystical appeal transcends and becomes personal, making it entirely possible that every listener will see it in a different light.
