Virgo De La Mar – What Zealandia Angel Thought Was Just Her Debut Album – Turned Out To Be An Inception Of New Neo-Victorian Music Genre

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zealandia angel virgo de la mar

Virgo De La Mar is Zealandia Angel’s debut album with a “Prodigy-like feel to it with its production and saas” (SoundOut).

It is full of life, passion and enchantment, and boasts addictive beats, rhythmical guitars and a mix of electronic and traditional instruments to deliver a unique and deep feeling to her music.

“The surreality of the lyrics and clear pitch of the vocals are fascinating and disturbing” (SoundOut).

“This can actually become very popular just through the sheer quirk and shock value of the composition and of the artist. This … creates a genre on its own…”, “It gives a real middle finger to the conformist nature of music today” (SoundOut).

“When I realized what I did” ZA recalls, “I could not sleep that night, I did not want to forget my thoughts but the only thing at hand, that I had to write with, was an eyeliner. But it did the job!”

First, she had to know what distinguishes music genres from one another. She drew a tetrahedron to model the music space, writing 3 pairs of music signatures along its 6 ridges: Romantic-Realistic, Rich-Minimalistic and Reserved-Eccentric. Second, she wanted to see if and where her new genre fit in. Virgo De La Mar – Romantic, Rich and Reserved – fell in the area occupied by classical, Victorian-era music. Now she had to give this new genre a meaningful, accurate name. She literally triangulated the name to be Neo-Victorian.

Since she was a child she longed for a piano. She grew up in Russia and when she was very young her mom invested in a government bond that was to be collected when ZA turned 18. The amount would be 1000 rubles; enough for her to buy a piano. However, severe inflation over the coming years meant that by the time she turned 18, her 1000 ruble bond could only buy a candy bar! So her dreams would have to wait. Once she finally bought a piano there was no stopping her.

She spent 2 years in her Bay of Islands studio in New Zealand crafting Virgo de la Mar and, inadvertently, the Neo-Victorian genre of music. It is “very haunting and old-school and futuristic at the same time” (SoundOut).

Download it via BandCamp, here.

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