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Hidden Symbols in Quilla’s New Album, ‘The Handbook of Vivid Moments’

Photo by Todd Turner, with geometric suit by Ann Tilley
Photo by Todd Turner, with geometric suit by Ann Tilley

Anna Luisa Daigneault, known as Quilla, is the audio muse that makes the Embodied podcast sparkle. WUNC collaborated with Quilla to craft the theme for Embodied and other background music for the recurring series, which approaches taboo topics through a feminist lens.

 Host Anita Rao talks to musician Anna Luisa Daigneault, otherwise known as Quilla.

Her music and the podcast amplify one another. To evoke the show’s emphasis on pleasure and sex, Quilla created a blooming synth refrains. The Greensboro musician and producer emphasizes biological cycles, family relationships and women’s liberation in her music. And those themes stand out even more clearly thanks to the addition of lyrics for her most recent album, “The Handbook of Vivid Moments.” While the album features multilingual lyrics and ranges from dancehall beats to ethereal soundscapes, the electro-vocal tracks remain extraordinarily accessible. The welcoming groove is a product of Quilla’s thorough checks on audio quality. While mixing audio, she constantly runs back and forth from her studio out to her blown-out car stereo to ensure that no matter how you listen, every lick hits right.

Sagittarius Music Video for Quilla from Jennida Chase on Vimeo.

Quilla and host Anita Rao dive into the album and uncover the symbols buried throughout the tracks. In addition to her own music, Daigneault is the founder and managing director of Ritual Fire Records as well as the program director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.

“The Handbook of Vivid Moments” was created with support from the North Carolina Arts Council and the partnering arts councils of the Regional Artist Project Grant Program.

Copyright 2021 North Carolina Public Radio

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
Grant Holub-Moorman is a producer for The State of Things, WUNC's daily, live talk show that features the issues, personalities and places of North Carolina.