MIZU: prphtbrd (feat. Concrete Husband)

Filmmaker and real-time artist Kevin Peter He explores metaphors of grotesque yet beautiful transformation in a new visual translation of experimental cellist MIZU’s single “prphtbrd”, from her sophomore album Forest Scenes. The music video is an “avant-garde exploration of harshness and chaos, crafted entirely through digital means.” In a dark and abstract reminiscent of a dense forest, a 3D-scanned avatar of MIZU flickers and warps from a human into a tree, then a bird. The hybrid figure rises as a testament to the possibilities of the digital as the realm of self-discovery.

Like the album, the music video takes its cue from German composer Robert Schumann’s Waldszenen, particularly the “Vogel als Prophet” (Bird as Prophet), a meditation on the power of a bird in flight and the mysteries of a liminal forest, privileging ideas of the “natural” as the vessel of terrifying truth. 

MIZU and He diverge from their classical predecessor’s warnings about industrialisation and technological change, experimenting with digital tools to turn the “natural” inside out and imagining a different plane of existence.

“The video echoes the essence of the music – amidst chaos, there’s a celebration of beauty and newfound form.”

MIZU digitally processes classical music samples beyond recognition, weaving them into a sonic tapestry alongside radio static, drum beats by techno producer Concrete Husband, and vocal snippets. This mirrors the more abstract parts of a self in motion, metamorphosing into something new (the musician began a physical gender transition during the inception of Forest Scenes).

His video draws from MIZU’s live performance of the song where she birthed the Prophet Bird. “In the middle of her set, she put aside her cello and shed her outfit to don this new bloom of a dress. It was metamorphic, with so much visceral yet beautiful emotion,” He recalled. The filmmaker then enlisted the help of frequent collaborators Alexander Baumann and Mio Ishikawa to make the video. 

“The forest is a metaphor for queer spaces, for spaces of self-discovery…But the spaces of self-discovery, for MIZU, are also found within the songs, which this video narrativises.”

Baumann, an artist and sculptor, designed each character in the three stages of hybrid transformation. Through an organic and visceral change, the human sheds skin to become a tree. The tree phase is more rigid and rooted as if learning to move anew. It then grows wings and transforms into a bird, free and elegant. Dancer Ishikawa uses motion capture technology to adapt her movements in real time, fully embodying the characters.

Finally, Unreal Engine is used to bring this transformation to life. MIZU’s 3D-scanned avatar undergoes a painful yet exhilarating transformation. The lighting, FX, and camera work were improvised and performed in real time by He and Baumann via MIDI controllers, adding an extra layer of expressiveness that mirrors the sonic frenzy and the thrill of transcendence.