sio gets gorgeously arty on “place to run” video

We first met Sio as a finalist in the 2018 Joburg Battle of the Bands. There, the woman born Sióbhan King told us that she’s a “storyteller” and a “vampire,” in love with the sound that electronics make around her exquisite, willowy voice, and the lush backdrops for songs that seem to all take place at night — and which either snap into beatwise motion, or keep drifting into the twilight. 

That soul-goth naturalist quality, like a South African intersection of Erykah Badu and old 4AD Recordings vibes in an artsy chill-out room, is all over her excellent 2019 album sbtxts.  You can also spot its visual companion on Marnus Strydom and Hankyeol Lee’s black & white video for “Place To Run.” The noir ambiance and surface-level skittishness of the Julian Gomes-produced track — which reconstitutes into a wordless-vocal-and-beat coda that deserves its own remix — is given life with Sio in the darkness and the shadows, before temporarily appearing in luxurious light. The focus of the layered storytelling is absolute — though it’s still hard to spot her fangs.

Sio’s album, sbtxts, is out now on STYTRUBTS