Live at Porgy & Bess

Zola Jesus: Ambassador of dark desires

An evening full of melancholy tranquillity and compositional surprises: Zola Jesus is coming to Vienna's Porgy & Bess.

(Bild: Shervin Lainez)

In her melancholy soundscapes, the American Zola Jesus oscillates between goth-pop borrowings, dark wave eruptions and electronic elements. On September 16, she will present her dreamy autumn pieces at Porgy & Bess in Vienna.

Gloomy gothic pop, dark wave and lots of electronic elements - when Zola Jesus takes to the stage, the door is open to darkness. The versatile artist has already wowed audiences in Vienna at a wide variety of venues. In 2015, she made a brilliant debut at the WUK, two years later she filled the Fluc am Praterstern and in 2022 her music thrilled fans at the Desertshore festival at Vienna's Volkstheater. It is only logical that 35-year-old Nika Roza Danilova, as she is known by her real name, will now provide evening sound delights in the venerable jazz cellar Porgy & Bess in Riemergasse.

Melancholic pop-noir
Although things have become a little quieter in recent years for the "queen of melancholy" with Russian-Ukrainian roots. Whether this is due to the precarious political situation or a certain artistic fatigue remains to be seen. Those who indulge in her melancholy pop-noir prefer the crisp fall to the unbridled heat of the aggressive summer. Her stage name is a combination of the French writer Émile Zola and the emotive-spiritual band Jesu.

Her songs are as powerful as they are delicate. They explore deep soul worlds and can also wade a little more lightly on the surface. It is not least the contrasts between their emotional nature and the accompanying music that make Zola Jesus a special sound experience. For example, "Taiga", released in 2014, was imbued with a relaxed light-heartedness, while on "Okovi" she explored the grotesque depths of her depression. It's a shame that her latest studio album "Arkhon", released in 2022, couldn't quite match the radiance of its predecessors.

When it's never enough
When Zola Jesus works on songs, she does so with absolute dedication and without compromise. "As a musician, I always have the feeling that what I do is not enough. I'm looking for more and I want to offer that to my listeners," she once told the "Krone" in an interview, "if I manage to get people to fight their own demons with the help of my songs, to cope better with their problems, then that's more than I ever dared to dream of."

In Vienna, she will also present songs from her current live EP "Alive In Cappadocia". As in the monastery, Danilova will leave the epic, rushing synthesizers and wafting basses at home this time and rely solely on her impressive voice, accompanied by a vulnerable, delicate, worldly and bittersweet piano.

Live at Porgy & Bess
On September 16, Zola Jesus will be playing her piano live at Porgy & Bess in Vienna. Tickets are still available at www.oeticket.com for her only Austrian show, which will nestle perfectly into the slowly approaching fall.