Andrina Bollinger - Island of Way Back (2026) Hi-Res

Swiss avant-pop artist Andrina Bollinger announces “Island of Way Back“ (March 2026), her most personal work to date: eleven songs that function as ritual, breath, and quiet rebellion against the tyranny of constant visibility.

Written over six years and structured as a four-act narrative (Disconnection → Listening Inward → Surrender → The Return), the album documents what happens when the body stops cooperating: when sleep vanishes, the voice falters, and one's own being feels unfamiliar. Bollinger's answer is radical tenderness: retreat to an inner island, listen until dreams return. A reminder: the mind needs body.

Recorded between her studio in Zurich’s Zentralwäscherei and sessions in Margate and Winterthur, the self-produced album features drummer Arthur Hnatek, bassist Jules Martinet, and co-production from British producer Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP with Laura Marling) on four tracks. Producer Bollinger recorded and played all vocals, guitars, piano and synth herself.

Andrina continues to push pop into experimental realms, sensual and fearless. Together with her band, she will present the album on tour starting in April 2026. She has previously performed at Montreux Jazz Festival, Reeperbahn Festival Hamburg, and Café de la Danse Paris, and has received international radio support from FIP France, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and Amazing Radio UK.

Sonically, the album is tactile and subversive: dream recordings whispered into a phone become effervescent soundscapes; bowed guitar strings morph into dark, cello-like textures; the voice becomes the backbone of rhythm, bassline, and synth, framing each arrangement. Even when the effect is orchestral, the approach is one of tasteful restraint.

From the earthy tension of "Hands in the Ground" to the polyrhythmic vortex of "Mind Needs Body," from the dream-woven "Forgot to Listen" to the raw, unvarnished closer "Oh Anne" (a conversation with Bollinger's departed grandmother) – each track unfolds as intimate ritual, a small blueprint for survival. The album's long gestation reflects a refusal of rush culture, following the body's timeline rather than the demands of the world outside the studio.

"In an industry demanding constant visibility, stepping away can feel like professional suicide," Bollinger reflects. "But some work requires withdrawal. Depth demands time."

Against a culture obsessed with speed and perfection, “Island of Way Back” is a deliberate act of slowing down and a homecoming in sound. It's Bollinger's map of return, and an invitation to anyone drowning in the pressures of perpetual performance.