For her 5th studio album, TAIGA, Nika relocated from central Los Angeles to Vashon Island in the Puget Sound, in effort to immerse herself in the natural world. Vashon is a densely-wooded enclave with no bridges connecting it to the mainland. The taiga is the world’s largest terrestrial biome; a wild boreal forest covering large
For her 5th studio album, TAIGA, Nika relocated from central Los Angeles to Vashon Island in the Puget Sound, in effort to immerse herself in the natural world. Vashon is a densely-wooded enclave with no bridges connecting it to the mainland. The taiga is the world’s largest terrestrial biome; a wild boreal forest covering large portions of Russia, Canada, Eurasia, referred to as the Northwoods where it connects in North America. Nika grew up on several acres of land in the northwoods of Wisconsin. Her Russian ancestors extend the taiga’s bloodline throughout several generations and to some extent this land has genetically imprinted on her. She has always felt its pull. To Nika, the taiga represents boundlessness: no law, just survival – at once innocent and raw, embodying naivety from its purity, yet at its core unforgiving and savage.
Most of Nika’s creative process on Vashon was very different from how she used to write. Instead of starting a track with a beat or layers of synthesizers (with vocals usually coming last,) she began by writing songs completely acapella. Her work on the orchestral album Versions inspired her to revisit her classical vocal training and further hone the skills she had started developing in operatic study when she was young. Resuming training with her old opera instructor, she regained the confidence and vocal range she had heretofore lost. It allowed her to shed the former blankets of noise and reverb that used to cover her voice in fear.
After incubating on Vashon for nine months, Nika headed back to Los Angeles to track and mix the album with co-producer Dean Hurley (David Lynch, Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse). Hurley guided her in reaching her fidelity goals; which had always been compromised on her previous work, typically made as home recordings. TAIGA is an undeniable transition for Zola Jesus. Described by the artist herself: “The music on the record is massive, with big brass and beats, crystal clear vocals.”
Liberated in the present yet connected to the past, TAIGA is a pinnacle for Zola Jesus, the culmination of years of breaking through boundaries.”
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Irena Tomažin (SLO) is a dancer, choreographer and a singer, who mainly performs in the context of dance-theater and vocal performances, as well as concerts of experimental improvised music. So far, she has created seven vocal-dance projects (Hitchcock’s metamorphoses with composer Mitja Reichenberg, Caprice, Caprice (re)lapsed, as a rain drop into the mouth of silence, Ptih with Hanna Preuss, Out of discord with Josephine Evrard and Taste of silence) and worked with many choreographers, theatre directors and musicians in Slovenia and abroad. Since 2006 she has been working on the solo project named »iT« for voice and voice recorders, of which she made her CD »Crying games«. With »iT« or as vocal improviser in experimental and improvised music she performed also abroad and in Slovenia on festivals like RdečeZore/Red Dawns, Break, Sound Explicit– Gallery P74, Druga Godba, Sajeta, Sound Disobedience /Ljubljana, ULTRA HANG /Budapest, Mostogradnja/Bratislava and Mostar; Club 5, Studio Aman/Wien; Dis-patch/Belgrade, CultureScapes / Swiss… She collaborated in Aldo Ivančič’s Bast Collective and Borghesia and played with musicians: Tomaž Grom, Marko Karlovčec, Neža Naglič, Bratko Bibič, Christof Kurzmann, Tim Blechmann, Okkyung Lee, Lee Patterson, Xavier Charles, Tetsuya Umeda, Liz Allbee, Christian Kesten… She regularly teaches voice workshops in Slovenia and abroad.
Organised by: Kino Šiška in KUD Kataman
