Comparisons between the dark, female, electronic-y artists that exist on the fringes of popular music are unavoidable, but when I started listening to Zola Jesus’ latest album, Conatus, expecting Fever Ray or Soap & Skin, I was taken aback with her ability. The petite Wisconsinite creates beats that are as eerie and tribal as any music being made today, but the careful treatment of her voice is what launches Conatus into the stratosphere. “Ixode,” the fifth track on the album, is simple on the surface – the ghostly backing track fluctuates, but doesn’t evolve much in the song’s four minutes – but Zola Jesus’ careful echoing and repetition of her chant-like vocals make the track build to an emotional crescendo. A lesser artist could have easily mishandled the concept, but in her careful hands the track shines.
Nika Danilova takes the name Zola Jesus when she performs, but the music under her moniker takes large cues from Nika’s upbringing. Raised in rural Wisconsin and trained in opera, her music finds a balance between the operatic vocal displays that she unleashes in tracks like “In Your Nature” and “Collapse,” and the sterility and harshness of Wisconsin winters. “Vessel” is among the most industrial sounding tracks of the album (the formula here would be Nine Inch Nails + Feist), but also beautifully shows off Danilova’s impressive vocal power. Zola Jesus manipulates the shimmering and shaking of the track’s instrumentation to a powerful, industrial apex. Her unique sound and ear for experimentation suggest that Conatus is just another step in Zola Jesus’ musical evolution, even if it is a remarkably complete and enjoyable step.