We’ve told you about Kedr Livanskiy before but, incase you missed it, Kedr (Yana to her friends) is a key and dazzling figure in Moscow’s underground electronic music scene. Signed to US label 2MR, her dreamy January Sun EP might have been inspired by cold Russian winters, but the epic parties she throws with local art and music collective Johns’ Kingdom have been keeping a whole generation of young dreamers warm. New single Ariadna (taken from her debut album of the same name, out later this summer) is a distorted summer soundtrack inspired by a Greek myth of Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who helped Theseus slay the minotaur. She later married Greece’s eligible bachelor and ancient times party boy, Dionysus, God of Fertility and Wine.
For the video, Yana rounded up an all-female crew, including longtime friend Masha Demianova as director. Already a fan of her unstaged fairytale-like images, she predicted it would be perfect and it is. “I think we’ve managed to express the female archetype,” Yana told us over email. “Nature and beauty, divine and human, an odd combination which everyone actually has an innate experience of. It only has to be heard, this ancient, archaic knowledge of life. Accepting it at the levels of intuition and eternity, and at the same time endlessly rushing about in the labyrinths of worldly situations — one doesn’t exclude the other.”
It was not known whether Ariadne was a goddess or mortal, but here and now it looks suspiciously like Yana is invoking the power of mighty women past as she dances under a full moon in the exactly sort of lunar ritual we’re up for. “As with any mythical creature, the image of Ariadne is strongly connected to nature, so we decided to shoot this video in Georgia, a country with both beautiful nature and an extremely rich history,” Masha says. “One of the scenes was shot in caves that have been there since 100 BC, where actual sacrifices to Ariadne’s husband Dionysus took place.” So enter the sacrificial chamber and enjoy these beautiful images teased from a forthcoming zine from by the creative collaborators.
Credits
Text Frankie Dunn