In 2022, yunè pinku exploded onto the scene of electronic dance music. Amidst all the noise, the South London-based songwriter and producer managed to swim her way to the surface and gain international recognition for her bright and dreamy blend of hyper-pop, house and UK garage. Most early press grasped onto pinku's confession that she did not discover her appreciation for electronic until lockdown, but her execution feels like a lifetime of appreciation with enough naïveté to allow for innovation.
Building off a successful 2022 that saw pinku collaborating with and remixing the likes of Biig Piig, Charli XCX, Logic1000 and more, the fresh-faced talent announces her forthcoming EP, BABYLON IX, her second offering since 2022's Bluff EP. As one of the most promising rising figures in electronic music, pinku expands her ethereal world further. Its first taste, "Night Light," premieres on PAPER today.
"'Night Light' is based on an AI study around the idea of mortality and sentience," yunè says of the song. "So this song is kind of a fictional version of what if that AI was a person who escaped into the world looking for its maker. The video follows this storyline in a sort of surrealistic, fever-dream lens."
Breakneck drums and deep bass echo the familiarity of late '90s and early '00s electronic music that evokes a distinct sensuality and sadness. Pinku's dreamlike voice sits just below the surface, blurring the line between what's manmade and human as she builds out the sonic landscape of lost AI searching for home. Its accompanying video shows pinku navigating the empty, gray London streets that turn into a glitched-out dream, even paying homage to Milla Jovovich's iconic role of Leeloo, the stunning and badass humanoid from the 1997 film The fifth Element.
The visual for "Night Light" couldn't have been done without a strong creative team who came together to see pinku's vision through. Speaking on the video's concept, director Bonjourcasimir said, "For this music video, yunè and her team wanted to recreate her as an AI being. That made me think of an ambivalent world in which humans and machines, reality and virtuality coexist with no boundaries between the two. 'Night Light' is a sensorial adventure in which yunè pinku materializes in a ghost town, navigating between thoughts and the real world in search of answers."
Likewise, creative director Leanda Heler said:
The whole process around building yunè’s newfound universe is linked to her Celtic background, mixing her mystical roots to the virtual world we live in today. During our first collaboration on Fai Fighter, we began questioning the gothic dimension of her creative self. We then wanted to evolve into this newfound world through another medium. This time around on 'Night Light,' yunè embodies an AI form searching for its creator through multiple vessels of reality going from her virtual being to a newfound consciousness. This unbalanced link between the two worlds merges beautifully with yunè’s airy sounds, portraying yunè the artist as well as yunè the newly digital being.
Below, watch the PAPER premiere of "Night Light" by yunè pinku.
Photo courtesy of Leanda Heler