Ahead of her forthcoming album Aura, Japanese vocal performer Hatis Noit has shared an accompanying A.I.-generated music video for her new single Angelus Novus which was Directed by Yuma Kishi.
Angelus Novus, meaning ‘New Angel’ in Latin, is named after a monoprint by the artist Paul Klee, which appears in the German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s essay Angel of History. “When I wrote this song, I remembered this image of an angel flying against the rough winds of history, which resonated very strongly with me in regards to both personal and social struggles. The song has a very intimate, introverted outro as I wanted it to end with a place of healing,” she recalls.
Directed by Yuma Kishi and his A.I., Yuma creates works in which the digital intelligence and the analogue body are always placed in a parallel relationship. For the video Hatis Noit wanted to explore the borderlines and fluidity of identity after being confronted with the self-alienated sensation she feels as a Japanese individual living in the UK. Sometimes being mistaken for Chinese she wondered ‘what makes us different?’ or ‘Is there any borderline?’.
Elaborating, she explains: “Sometimes the answer is ‘yes’, we are different and unique, but then also I found that sometimes we have something in common, or sometimes we even feel we are connected through our genes somehow… With this video, I wanted to show how apparent yet fluid this borderline is — through the united and mutated image of different cast by Yuma’s artificial intelligence without prejudice, and ask further: ‘where does one end and another begin?’.”
Hatis Noit will perform at select summer festivals followed by UK headline shows in August — with more dates to be announced.
01.06 Turin (IT) — Museo d’Arte Orientale
18.06 Berlin (DE) — Kiezsalon
15.07 Viseu (PT) — Jardin Efémeros
22.07 Katowice (PL) — Tauron Nowa Muzyka
29.07 Malmesbury (UK) — Womad
12.08 Haldern (DE) — Haldern Pop
20.08 Manchester (UK) — Hallé St. Michael’s
25.08 London (UK) — St John on Bethnal Green
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