Smoke and Mirrors is a track from Adomaa’s most recent album, released by Hakuna Kulala in 2022. Adomaa describes her style as blending jazz, soul and elements of African beats and traditional music. Each of these elements is faithfully represented within the track, with an emphasis on the more soul based elements of the composition utilising choir vocals and extended chord voicings throughout.
The acoustic guitar heard at the beginning is reminiscent of a blues or jazz style guitar riff, playing a syncopated arpeggio of the chords D minor add9, E minor and A7, utilising the jazz scale of melodic minor throughout. Similarly the occasional chromatic rundowns across the song add to this jazz guitar vibe. Production wise, the guitar sounds very full, due to being the only instrument, and seems to have some room reverb applied, as well as a very subtle saturation that’s only really noticeable on some of the lower and more aggressively picked notes.
The lead vocals on the track are very clear throughout, however the more ethereal and choir like lower and higher harmonies seem to be sent to a more intense hall type reverb, fostering a more gospel or soul-y vibe. This gospel influence is mentioned frequently by Adomaa, whose father was a preacher in Ghana and Nigeria as she grew up. This furthered influenced her musical journey, as when she was young she would join a church choir. The choir influence is obvious through the track, lending itself to a faithful representation of Adomaa’s experience growing up in Nigeria and Ghana.
The subtle ambient layers throughout (I’m unsure if they’re very reverbed vocals or something else?) also lend to this ethereal and chapel-like feeling, from a production view help to fill out the track as its instrumentation is so thin, and from a compositional stand point helps build dynamics, as it doesn’t enter immediately but instead builds across the song.
Adomaa (no date) Design233. Available at: https://www.design233.com/articles/adomaa (Accessed: 02 December 2023).
Ockot, T. (2022) And through it all, adomaa rises again, PAM – Pan African Music. Available at: https://pan-african-music.com/en/adomaa-becoming-adomaa/ (Accessed: 02 December 2023).