Föllakzoid released her hotly anticipated fifth album V last Friday. The innovative mix of techno, krautrock and psychedelia explores the theme of purity – a departure from the norm in the genre. Today she releases a music video for V-IIII that plunges us deep underwater or deep in the forest in a far-reaching imaginary realm. This dreamscape brings into conversation non-binary trans identities with its preoccupation with transformation, which Föllakzoid as a queer trans person of course has a deep knowledge of.
The artist shares, "The video shows a glimpse into the dissolution of perception. It’s a transdimensional voyage through a dark light particle-filled valley. It’s something once seen will alter the way you imagine forever. We are the dream of the machine and as the biotechnology rises, that distinction will no longer apply."
Decay, regrowth and an eight turning on its side as a symbol of infinity open the video, making a statement on the perpetuity of nature and cyclical patterns in both music and biology. V-IIII, as the closing track on the album, naturally introduces a conversation on ends and new beginnings. The images we see are computer generated, “the dream of the machine”, which underlines the importance of technology in our current life cycles and imaginations of it. Old age is increasingly linked to medical technology, just as birth is.
In the video, technology represents organic yet unreal forms that shift between different beings and objects, in constant flux. This flux not only evokes our inevitable decay and rebirth but also shares a trans-ness to the narrative. No being is unchanging, our bodies are not just one identity forever, the body’s physicality and the imagination around the body is plastic. Underscoring the images is a driving techno beat, one that feels like the frenetic heartbeat of one of the alien beings represented in the illustrations or even that of the computer dreaming up these images. Fused with ideas of biology – the heartbeat and shifting bodies- the techno noise evokes the similarly driving rise of biotechnologies, thumping away in our shared consciousness.
Soon the video shifts into bright green digital sludge that morphs across the screen, creating a transition into the green world that turns blue again. What traditionally might be labelled women’s bodies become men’s bodies and vice versa as the minimalist techno beat proceeds with a sprinkling of synthetic crackles and whirrs like a production line. Eventually, we cannot label gender on these beings who are represented. Nor can we even distinguish them from a network of roots that features repetitively in the sequence. There is this sense of togetherness that is expressed through the liquid digital images. Tree or person we are all one, we are all pure. Towards the end the aliens we are seeing briefly look a lot like Föllakzoid herself, as her body melts and changes.
Transcendental and completely captivating this video is just as spellbinding as the album and live performance. Luckily, soon Föllakzoid will be touring the UK and Europe in October and November. As a gesture of commitment to diversity and inclusivity, Föllakzoid is offering a limited number of complimentary tickets for trans-identified individuals to the upcoming tour dates.