Seraphina Lotkhamnga on June 26th, 2013

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Nika Roza Danilova, aka Zola Jesus, has always marched to the beat of her own drum. The pint-sized, opera-trained vocalist’s knack for producing songs that were icy, hypnotic and melodramatic shone in the gothic-tinged synth-pop of her breakthrough album, 2011’s “Conatus.” So it’s not a shock that Danilova goes a step even further with her fourth studio album “Versions,” which is slated for an Aug. 20 release via Sacred Bones. It’s not exactly new material, but it certainly sounds like it as Danilova recruited industrial producer JG Thirlwell (Foetus) to orchestrate 10 Zola Jesus originals. Songs get a lush treatment where only string instruments cushion her vocals and tracks such “Avalanche,” singularly ominous and detached, are now rich and tender.

||| Stream: “Avalanche (Slow)”

||| Previously: “Vessel” and at the Natural History Museum