Zola Jesus

Defibrillation for frozen hearts: how nice life can be in an ice-cold pop landscapeLike a flash-frozen Rihanna, Nika Roza Danilova has shone a light on the gloomy side of pop music. Showing off a Joy Division T-shirt and a familiarity with industrial pioneers like Throbbing Gristle or riot-punk rockers Bikini Kill, Zola Jesus channeled a nightmarishly beautiful inwardness – and quickly became a poster girl for the black-clad cool kids that suddenly reappeared everywhere. In 2011, Der Spiegel described her as a »Lady Gaga for homebodies.« After five studio albums, numerous live appearances (including at Kampnagel), and a continual evolution of her style, it is now clear that the 27-year-old is – and wants to be – more than goth-pop retromania. She has set an opera to music with Karin Dreijer Andersson (The Knife), she has played in anti-pop super-group Former Ghosts with Kampnagel regular and sound tinkerer Jamie Stewart of XiuXiu, and worked with no wave legend J.G. Thirlwell for the high-culture multiplex that is the Guggenheim Museum. Now Zola Jesus has landed on the Mute label and expanded her audience and concert venues massively thanks to catchy songs like »Dangerous Days«: the contrasting ingenious widescreen symphony and rugged industrial Masses are »grandiose pop pathos« (taz). Instead of Projector as support act the duo Kirrin Island will be part of the concert, playing smart Electro Pop between melancholy and danceability.