Zola Jesus annoncerer i dag sit 6. album Arkhon – ude d. 20. maj
I dag kan Zola Jesus annoncere sit 6. album studiealbum Arkhon, som udkommer d. 20. maj på Sacred Bones / Playground Music. Som teaser til det kommende album udgiver hun den kraftfulde åbningssang ’Lost’ sammen med en tilhørende musikvideo, der er instrueret af Mu Tunç og optaget på location i Cappadocia-området i Tyrkiet.
Se videoen og lyt til ’Lost’ her.
Nika Roza Danilova, sangeren, sangskriveren og produceren, der siden 2009 har udgivet musik som Zola Jesus, har en stemme, der virkelig skinner igennem og rammer en helt rå nerve. Både stemme og nerve kommer til udtryk på den nye single hvor Danilova blandt andet synger: ”Everyone I know is lost”. Om sangen fortæller hun:
“It’s true. Everyone I know is lost. Lost hope, lost future, lost present, lost planet. There is a collective disillusionment of our burning potential. As we stray further from nature, we drift from ourselves. ‘Lost’ is a sigil to re-discover our coordinates and claim a new path.”
Om den tilhørende musikvideo fortæller hun, “I wanted to shoot the video in a place that carried a lot of energy, with someone that I felt understood the spiritual backbone of the song. It was a surprisingly natural process to make this video with Mu Tunc in Turkey. I put my faith in him and in Cappadocia, a labyrinthine city built within 60-million-year-old caves. Throughout human history these caves have served as a citadel for so many different groups of people who went there to get lost. It is a testament to the resilience of humanity, and the durability of our earth.”
På sine tidligere album har Danilova for det meste haft rollen som auteur og omhyggeligt kreeret hvert eneste aspekt i Zola Jesus’ lyd og look. Denne gang har hun indset, at hendes behov for kontrol også står i vejen for hendes kunst. Derfor har Nika Roza Danilova på dette album måtte springe ud i at få hjælp fra andre. Noget hun aldrig før har gjort brug af: "At some point, I had to work with other people. I needed new blood. I needed somebody else."
På Arkhon har Danilova arbejdet med Randall Dunn, som er kendt for sit arbejde med Sunn O))) og for soundtracket til Jóhann Jóhannssons film Mandy. Hun har også arbejdet sammen med trommeslager og perkussionist Matt Chamberlain, der før har arbejdet med Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan og David Bowie.
"When I look back at my work, I see there's a theme where I fixate on my fear of the unknown," siger Danilova. "That really came into fruition for this record, because I had to let go of so much control. I had to surrender to whatever the outcome would be. That used to be really hard for me, and now I had no other choice."
Albummets titel Arkhon betyder “styrke” eller ”hersker” på oldtids græsk, men det er også en specifik valens indenfor Gnosticisme: "Arkons are a Gnostic idea of power wielded through a flawed god," fortæller Danilova. "They taint and tarnish humanity, keeping them corrupted instead of letting them find their harmonious selves. I do feel like we are living in an arkhonic time; these negative influences are weighing extremely heavy on all of us. We're in a time of arkhons. There's power in naming that."
Arkhon tracklist:
1. Lost
2. The Fall
3. Undertow
4. Into The Wild
5. Dead and Gone
6. Sewn
7. Desire
8. Fault
9. Efemra
10. Do That Anymore