New York-based record label Youngbloods presents Violent Flowers, a glistening collection of Experimental Dream Pop from Israeli singer, songwriter, and film composer Zoe Polanski. Written in collaboration with producer Aviad Zinemanas, Violent Flowers (due out July 17th) uses Polanski’s tranquilizing voice as a guide across a vibrant landscape of inner musings that reflect her visual, and often cinematic, approach to songwriting.
Born to a musical family in the tense northern city of Haifa, Polanski sought from an early age an escape from everyday life through music, first learning cello then piano and eventually guitar. In contrast to her family’s affinity for jazz and world music, Polanski was drawn to the entrancing and transportive effect of ethereal, lo-fi sounds. After her obligatory service in the IDF, Polanski moved to New York City to record with the band Katamine and enrolled for a summer course in cinematography at the School of Visual Arts. Becoming enraptured with music’s ability to enliven a visual scene, she returned to Israel settling in the liberal, multicultural hub of Tel Aviv and started her new project named after the renown Hungarian avant garde filmmaker Béla Tarr. Like the project’s namesake, the music was imbued with a sense of slow cinema verité, juxtaposing dark lyrical observations against the surreal aura generated by spacious, floating guitar lines soaked in reverb.
Through several serendipitous encounters Polanski befriended local sound designer and producer Aviad Zinemanas. Their friendship, initially cemented by a mutual appreciation for shoegaze and ambient music, would blossom into trading Ableton sessions and shared explorations into broadening Polanski’s productions. They would begin to write and refine Polanski’s demos, culminating in what would become Violent Flowers.
Today Glide is premiering “The Willows,” one of the most impressionable songs on the new album. Polanski’s appreciation for cinematography in romantic fashion is evident in her sound design, which is lush, dramatic and vibrant. There is an infectious simplicity to her vocals and lyrics that brings to mind acts like Beach House, Purity Ring, and the Cocteau Twins but is also completely unique. With Zinemanas, she is able to craft ambient electronic dream pop that definitely carries a strong cinematic quality.
Polanski describes the inspiration behind the song:
“I wrote ‘The Willows’ after spending a few months far away from home, traveling with a guy across the U.S. It was a surreal affair I had with a musician which I really admired, and it ended painfully. When I returned to Israel, the 2014 Gaza conflict started, and I remember being stuck in my room, which was on a rooftop in Jaffa, hearing long sirens and then explosions over my head. I recall being conflicted between empathizing with the civilians in Gaza and southern Israel while at the same time longing for being as far away from this as possible. I longed to go back to those magical days of traveling, and writing the song kind of helped me do that. Years later I recorded a demo of it on a 4-track, and then played it to Aviad when we met. It was the first song we ever worked on together.”
LISTEN:
Violent Flowers is out on July 17th on Youngbloods.
Photo by Ori Kroll
