On her debut EP Habits, Gisela Fullà-Silvestre — the Barcelona-born electronic producer behind NOIA — put her mastery of textures and balance on full display. The EP’s four glassy synth-pop gems were complex and sinuous, intricate layers weaving in and out of each other without ever feeling overworked.
Perhaps the best example of NOIA’s deft, airy hand as a producer is the breezy “Itaca Tropical,” a minimal track she’s animated through a bright, poppy new video directed by filmmaker Joan Galo, premiering today on Remezcla. Vibrant and saturated with color, the video revolves around a movie set, in which NOIA plays a changing cast of characters. Long takes move her from one scene to the next, as everything in the environment around her shifts quickly — a metaphor, Galo says, for the song’s message of circuitous journeys and an ever-changing idea of home.
“I imagine our fate as a circular voyage instead of a straight line. In the center of this circle, our essence remains while circumstances keep changing — that’s why there’s a sense of repetition in the video…I wanted to play with this idea of destroying the past, the present, and the future, and not being able to understand what’s the reality of the character of NOIA,” Galo explained.
A short acting sequence in the beginning of the video is frontloaded with Almodóvar drama, while NOIA’s costumes include a Sailor Moon-style uniform straight out of our dreams. Galo revealed that the video’s inspirations came from Almodóvar’s Entre Tinieblas, Showgirls, David Lynch’s Lost Highway, and Japanese anime. There’s even a dance sequence that blends mod color schemes and Bob Fosse-style choreography.
The clip is a visual companion to the song’s lyrics, which NOIA wrote with Constantino Cavafis’ poem “Ithaka” (about Ulysess’ journey to his home island) in mind. “In the chorus I sing ‘a vanishing point around the sun, plastic island in my mind’ — heading there is your journey, but the idea of home keeps shifting. Sometimes, after you’ve found your Ithaca, you part again to find a new Ithaca to keep your journey alive,” NOIA told Remezcla.
The whole time, we’re unsure which characters NOIA is just playing for the cameras and which are supposed to represent reality, but the labyrinthine reading of the video is emblematic of NOIA’s multi-faceted style. Like her songs, the video has effortless complexity — showing us that she’s an artist who can wind her way through music and film alike.
NOIA’S debut EP Habits is out now on Cascine.