With three synths, heavy throbbing beats and the dramatic presence of her voice, Zola Jesus was celebrating the release of her new album, ‘Conatus’, on Tuesday at Amoeba.
Yes, her voice is really hard to figure out, curiously, before I had seen Nika Roza Danilova (her real name) I had imagined her tall with an imposing stature, and I could not be more wrong,… she is incredibly petite and short, but her voice is at least ten feet tall; it’s a warm and cold beast at the same time, wrapping you in its operatic depth, escaping from the bleak synths and the strange soundscapes.
On stage, with her bleached-blonde hair, pale skin and blank grey outfit, she had a ghostly but frenetic presence, either nervously walking around without any dance move as if she was trying to escape something, or moving and folding herself at each drum beat. She was actually quite fascinating to watch, like a specter having a visceral and intense inner life.
The music was powerful in all its darkness and experimental electronica, but in fact just a background for her voice, which was resonating as the main element of the songs.
All the eyes and cameras were turned to her, and when she stepped down to walk among the crowd during a song, and she was totally holding everyone’s attention.
At 22, the Russian American woman has actually been opera-trained since the age of 7, and has already released 3 EPs and 2 albums as her solo project, Zola Jesus, a moniker which intriguingly combines Jesus Christ with French writer Emile Zola. On Tuesday night, she played essentially songs from her new album, ‘Conatus’, like ‘Avalanche’, ‘Hikikomori’, ‘Lick the Palm of the Burning Handshake’, ‘Shivers’, ‘Seekir’, before digging in her previous album for a dramatic rendition of ‘Night’.
For her last song, ‘Vessel’, she ended lying on stage, legs moving and face down, as if she was undergoing a difficult metamorphosis, like the moth in the video of the song.