AkA – Echo Ex Voto (Digital/CD Album – HTON Records)
AkA is a project founded by Frenchman Henri Sizaret. Now based in Portugal, AkA has a career spanning more than 30 years. This new release comprises nine tracks conceived as a form of litany.
AkA’s musical world is fascinating yet difficult to pin down. Primarily an Electronic project, this album sits somewhere between Ambient and Experimental music, with various other influences surfacing from time to time. While the sound is at times minimalist, the compositions remain intelligent, with meticulous attention paid to every sound, effect, and field recording. Slow rhythms occasionally emerge, making the music more accessible. Vocals also feature prominently, delivered in various languages and a spoken format, or even whispered. This fits perfectly with the album’s atmosphere: mysterious and cold. A few tracks also incorporate female choral vocals, carefully sampled and blended into the background.
AkA offers a unique experience, delivering visionary Electronic music, and “Echo Ex Voto” is a brilliant example of this. (Rating:8½).
Listen to “Under Your Protection”:
About AkA
AkA is the electronic music project of French musician Henri Sizaret, incepted in the early 1990s under the name “ElectroCute” before being renamed AkA in 2000, per the project’s own Bandcamp biography. Now based in Portugal, Sizaret has released “Dataism” (2019), “Wup Und Wuf” (2019), “Digirama” (2020) and “Résonances Hyménoptiques” (2020) via HTON Records, per Discogs.
“Echo Ex Voto,” released 20 April 2026 on HTON Records (catalog HTN 034), comprises nine tracks conceived as a set of litanies. Instrumentation is computer-generated by Sizaret, who also designed the sleeve; photography is by Guillaume Terver. Per the label’s own Bandcamp notes, the album was created during a year marked by the death of the artist’s father, and its track “Under Your Protection” draws on one of the earliest Marian prayers, “Sub Tuum Praesidium,” dated to 3rd-century Christianity. No prior Side-Line coverage of AkA has been found.
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