VIDA RELEASES ‘Embrace Your Failure’

Tāmaki-based multidisciplinary artist VIDA invites you to an evening of sonic transformation and ritual as they unveil their debut EP, Aquatopialien, on Thursday, December 12th at Goblin, 134 Ponsonby Road. Combining live music, storytelling, and immersive performance, this launch promises to be a celebration of collective joy and creative exploration.

VIDA’s performance will bring the world of Aquatopialien to life, blending their background in jazz, fine arts, and performance to create an immersive experience that weaves together storytelling, and collective joy. Joining VIDA is a carefully curated selection of local talent: Tāmaki jazz legend Chelsea Prastiti (of Skilaa), the enigmatic multidisciplinary artist Hun Lynch, Pounamu Rurawhe, whose magnetic practice spans live performance, movement, and sculptural video and producer and DJ Alexa Casino who most recently opened for Kelela. Tickets tickets are $10 unwaged and $15 waged, available from Under The Radar.

VIDA has spent much of 2024 building the world of Aquatopialien, from the sci-fi-inspired music video for debut single ‘The Story of Takavi,’ co-directed with Frankie Berge, to their appearances at Whammy’s Dungeon Series and Cubadupa. At its core, Aquatopialien is more than an EP—it’s a fully realised mythology. The project began as a short story about VIDA’s alien alter ego, Takavi, a being sent to Earth to rehydrate its environmental and bodily waters through sound. This narrative weaves seamlessly into the music, blending 70s soul, 90s art pop, jazz, gospel, and funk, influenced by artists like Björk, Erykah Badu, and Flying Lotus. The result is a sonic experience that’s expansive, intimate, and otherworldly.

Recorded at Pōneke’s Black Hole Studio with producer Mark Austin (Vera Ellen’s It’s Your Birthday), Aquatopialien balances organic experimentation with meticulous craftsmanship. Born from voice-first improvisations, the songs carry the raw intimacy of diary entries, layered with intricate textures and storm-like melodies. Reflecting the EP’s themes of emergence and transformation, VIDA recorded the vocals in cocoon-like spaces—predominantly inside a makeshift cave crafted from producer Mark Austin’s duvets—infusing the process with a sense of womb-like enclosure and creative rebirth.

The EPs final single ‘Embrace Your Failure,’ is set to come out this Friday 29th before the project drops in it’s entirety on December 12th. Materialising from VIDA’s SP404 and loop pedal, this track is a punk-inflected DIY anthem. Reflecting on the tracks origins, VIDA explains “the track took inspiration from an episode of the muppets in which Animal battles Buddy Rich in a duel of the drums - obviously Animal wins.“ Featuring contributions from Samuel Austin (drums), John Gibson (piano), and an incidental siren, the track serves as an antidote to the pressure of perfection.

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