Emoticons by Irsa Destiwi

When Irsa composed this song in 2011, before an ever growing library of emojis ruled our daily communication, it was still the more rudimentary, though not necessarily simple, text-based emoticons which helped add emotion to the otherwise flat world of communicating via SMS, instant messaging, and email.

For Irsa, the song introduced new shades of emotion to her own music as she experimented with a more modern composition style. It also appropriately stands out as the last song on Irsa's upcoming album Rosy Cheeks as the most modern jazz of the songs and a nod to moving forward as Irsa hopes that this album will be the first of many more to come.

Like the wide range of emoticons, and the wide range with which different people might interpret them, Irsa is releasing this song on Valentine's Day since love (or even <3) too can encompass many different emotions depending on the person, place, or even time.

Irsa hopes you will find a version of how you see love, and perhaps how you feel it today, represented in this song.

Irsa was trained in classical piano but started to branch out while performing in cafes as a teenager. Then after joining a jazz workshop at age 19, she never looked back and has continued to hone her skills as a jazz pianist. In addition to arranging a wide range of music and leading her own band, she has released two albums as the duo Bandanaira and three albums in the group Shadow Puppets

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