Kevin Bronson on August 29th, 2014

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Since her experimental early days, Nika Roza Danilova  – aka Zola Jesus – has sought to make deep connections with her music, and on her forthcoming album for Mute Records, “Taiga” (due Oct. 7), the Russian American singer, who was reared in Wisconsin, plays Earth angel, at least thematically. The taiga is a boreal forest located in northern climes just below the tundra, and what better metaphor to use for the human race’s innate interconnectedness than a fragile, beautiful ecosystem? Danilova’s siren call about dark times was visually realized by director Tim Saccenti, who says of the video, filmed in the Olympic Mountains in Washington state: “The song is a pure emotional plea, a future primitive call to arms. To create a moment of light in these dark times was our hope. Eschewing a heavy narrative we let the images of the Earth, filmed in wide screen and mixed with a tense unnatural presence, wash over the viewer while Nika communicates her powerful message.” In the chorus, after all, “they” could be just about anybody: “It’s a dark dark day,” she sings. “It’s dangerous to go / and listen to what they say.”
||| Live: Zola Jesus plays Oct. 9 at the El Rey Theatre.

||| Previously: “Dangerous Days,” “Avalanche”