Turning Japanese: IO Echo

The beguiling voice and face of Joanna Gika are only part of the entrancing dreaminess of the new video for the track “Eye Father” directed by choreographer Benjamin Millepied for Joanna and partner Leopold Ross’s band Io Echo.

With a kabuki performer featured prominently and despite the suggestion that the footage was shot from the Japanese coastline to Death Valley, it was all done in and around L.A. Ah the magic of movie making. The vid debuted on Nowness with a brief q+a with Joanna.

So delighted to see how this duo has evolved. Joanna was once a shop girl in our first A+R store, a tiny place on Silverlake Boulevard across from the legendary live music venue, Spaceland. I remember her pointing out when some particularly cool band or musician was playing there. Now she’s all grown up. And the music she and long-time partner and collaborator Leopold are creating reflects this flourishing evolution.

The pair were in the new store in District La Brea not too long ago, and we talked of doing something together on the rooftop or somewhere. Stay tuned…