Zola Jesus - Taiga

Content Direction, editing, Compositing

Nika Danilova (Zola Jesus) worked with High Rise to create the very first social elements for her fifth studio album, Taiga.

From the beginning, Nika wanted to treat the album teaser as a mini music video, something that would fully engage it’s audience wanting more than the short forty-five seconds it is.  She described to us that Taiga, which is the Russian name for a boreal forest, is inspired from human interaction with the land.  Already having a clear vision, Nika detailed that she wanted, sweeping, expansive landscapes super-imposed with her silhouette.  

While in New York shooting Taiga’s album cover and press photos, Nika had photographer Jeff Elstone capture the video of her silhouette and profiles.  In LA we immediately cut together an edit to the song of her choice, Dust.  In addition to using stock footage and photos, we wanted to give the video an analog, mysterious ethereal style.  After a bit of experimenting we employed a technique of projecting a luma matte onto fog, re-photographing the projection and using the resulting fogged footage as a new luma matte to reveal Nika’s profile.

A week after the announcement video went live, Zola Jesus’ first single, Dangerous Days from Taiga has garnered almost a quarter million plays on Soundcloud alone.

Produced by High Rise