Nika Roza Danilova was raised in Merrill, Wisconsin. At first impression she seems to be the twin sister of Lady Gaga (perhaps for the “important” nose) and often was called “clone”.
But this young singer has in common with the Pop Icon just bizarre costumes (not every time) and golden hair. Rather reminds me a lot the divine Florence Welch (Florence + the Machine), for the sophisticated shape and the extraordinary voice.
In the last years many international newspapers expressed appreciations about Zola and her music: “Huge, heart-wrenching songs powered forth on epic synth and crashing war drums.” [The Guardian, UK].
This music has something wild,gloomy, mystic and tribal.
Perhaps no accident that the Future Primitive Films is the production company created in 2009 by Jacqueline Castel, the Director of this clip.
The collaboration between the singer and the filmmaker seems to be predestined: Jacqueline translates into perfect images the visceral singing of Zola, and she do it with great ease, creating a play of references with the metaphor of the moth life cycle.
The singer says about the song: ““Vessel” was born from many surreal dreams I was having while writing the record, the white-banded sphinx moth was used to symbolize the otherworldliness of dreams, secret knowledge and an underlying metamorphosis that this particular moth goes through in underground desert chambers.“
The video was shooted in the New Mexican desert to finally put this surreal experience in a physical context. This experiment was a real revelation:”I have a memory of standing alone on a dune, with the rest of the crew very far away. I could only hear the wind and myself breathing in the middle of an afternoon sandstorm. Green chiffon was tied to all of my limbs and it would blow all over me, envelop me and then try to break free. … It was at that moment that I felt the music become real, all around me. Even with nothing but the wind as the sound source, I could hear it.“
My dear Zola your music is exactly like a breath of wind. Mild and seductive.