Sacred Bones has unveiled “Soak”, the new single from Zola Jesus’ forthcoming release Okovi, due for release on September 8th via Sacred Bones. “Soak” is written through the lens of serial killer’s victim, clinging to life and about to be dumped in the water.

“I was thinking about this crucial moment inside the victim’s mind, when she knows she’s going to die. She thinks back at her life and the futility of the decisions she made, when in the end her life would be cut short against her will,” says Zola Jesus of the track.

“What’s the point of trying to navigate life if you don’t even get to choose how it ends? Instead of letting her fate be determined by someone else, she takes back control and turns it around, so instead, in her mind, she is choosing to die. She lets the killer assist her in suicide, as she gets tossed into the water and slowly drowns.Through writing this song the story evolved within me, and I saw how it mirrored my own feelings inside.”

For over a decade, Nika Roza Danilova has been recording music as Zola Jesus. She’s been on Sacred Bones Records for most of that time, and Okovi marks her reunion with the label.

Fittingly, the 11 electronics-driven songs on Okovi share musical DNA with her early work on Sacred Bones. The music was written in pure catharsis, and as a result, the sonics are heavy, dark, and exploratory. In addition to the contributions of Danilova’s longtime live bandmate Alex DeGroot, producer/musician WIFE, cellist/noise-maker Shannon Kennedy from Pedestrian Deposit, and percussionist Ted Byrnes all helped build Okovi’s textural universe.

Zola Jesus on Okovi:

“Last year, I moved back to the woods in Wisconsin where I was raised. I built a little house just steps away from where my dilapidated childhood tree fort is slowly recombining into earth. Okovi was fed by this return to roots and several very personal traumas.

While writing Okovi, I endured people very close to me trying to die, and others trying desperately not to. Meanwhile, I was fighting through a haze so thick I wasn’t sure I’d find my way to the other side. Death, in all of its masks, has been encircling everyone I love, and with it the questions of legacy, worth, and will.

Okovi is a Slavic word for shackles. We’re all shackled to something—to life, to death, to bodies, to minds, to illness, to people, to birthright, to duty. Each of us born with a unique debt, and we have until we die to pay it back. Without this cost, what gives us the right to live? And moreover, what gives us the right to die? Are we really even free to choose?

This album is a deeply personal snapshot of loss, reconciliation, and a sympathy for the chains that keep us all grounded to the unforgiving laws of nature. To bring it to life, I decided to enlist the help of Alex DeGroot, who has been the only constant in my live band and helped mix the Stridulum EP back in 2010. It will be released on Sacred Bones, the closest group of people I’ll ever have to blood-bound family.”

ZOLA JESUS
OKOVI
TRACK LIST

1. Doma
2. Exhumed
3. Soak
4. Ash to Bone
5. Witness
6. Siphon
7. Veka
8. Wiseblood
9. NMO
10. Remains
11. Half Life

ZOLA JESUS TOUR DATES:

16/09 – Hudson, NY – Basilica Soundscape
21/09 – San Diego, CA – Casbah
22/09 – Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar
23/09 – Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf
25/09 – Dallas, TX – Kessler Theater
26/09 – Austin, TX – North Door
27/09 – New Orleans, LA – Siberia
28/09 – Atlanta, GA – Aisle 5
29/09 – Asheville, NC – The Mothlight
30/09 – Washington, DC – U Street
01/10 – Boston, MA – ICA Boston
03/10 – Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA
04/10 – Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade
06/10 – Toronto, ON – Longboat Hall
07/10 – Detroit, MI – Assemble Sound Church
08/10 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
09/10 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre
10/10 – St. Paul, MN – Amsterdam Bar & Hall
11/10 – Omaha, NE – Waiting Room
14/10 – Salt Lake City, UT – Amsterdam Bar & Hall
16/10 – Oakland, CA – Starline Social Club
17/10 – San Francisco, CA – Independent
19/10 – Seattle, WA – Crocodile
20/10 – Portland, OR – The Old Church
21/10 – Vancouver, BC – Venue
24/10 – Malmo, SE – Ikonst
25/10 – Gothenburg, SE – Nefertiti
26/10 – Copenhagen, DK – Jazzhouse
28/10 – Cologne, DE – Luxor
29/10 – Brighton, UK – The Haunt
31/10 – Glasgow, UK – St. Luke’s
01/11 – Manchester, UK – Band on the Wall
02/11 – Leeds, UK – Belgrave Music Hall
03/11 – Norwich, UK – Arts Centre
04/11 – Liverpool, UK – Stanley Theatre
06/11 – Dublin, IE – Whelan’s
07/11 – London, UK – Village Underground
08/11 – Paris, FR – Le Point Ephémère
12/11 – Geneva, CH – La Gravière
14/11 – Roma, IT – Monk
15/11 – Bologna, IT – Locomotiv
16/11 – Bern, CH – Dampfzentrale
17/11 – Milan, IT – Magnolia
18/11 – Zagreb, HR – Mocvara
20/11 – Nuremburg, DE – Z-Bau
21/11 – Vienna, AT – Fluc
22/11 – Berlin, DE – SO36
23/11 – Leipzig, DE – UT Connewitz
25/11 – Frankfurt, DE – Mousonturm
27/11 – Brussels, BE – Beursschouwburg
28/11 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
29/11 – Hamburg, DE – Uebel & Gefahrlich