A catching keyboard hook bounces above theremin-like swells. The sampled snare and chyme guitar riff drop. Gawking onlookers smile at the young Hungarian recording artist, imanexperiment, who uncomfortably adjusts her skirt as she approaches the grocery store entrance. Suddenly, from out of a parked car, two men emerge – one dressed as a white bunny, the other a pink gorilla – snatch up the singer-songwriter and force her into the trunk of their car.
This is the opening to imanexperiment’s video for her retro synth-pop single ‘Fall 4 U.’ The concept for the video came about in a collaboration with director Anna Korom and cameraman Flóra Fecske. Speculation as to whether or not the creative team had recently dropped acid while watching Donnie Darko has, as of yet, not been confirmed.
The gorilla-style filming – no pun intended – took the creative team into neglected urban eyesores outside the Hungarian capital, under and across a dilapidated graffiti-rich bridge, and atop rusted out camping trailers. The backdrop suits the song well, which despite the infectious pop beat, speaks about frustration from the constant catcalling and verbal harassment women often have to put up with.
After kidnapping the singer, taking her to a caravan graveyard, and pushing her around in a shopping cart, the pink gorilla and white rabbit eventually get their comeuppance, and the video closes on a close-up shot of imanexperiment, stage blood splattering her face as she metes out justice to her furry assailants.
This video – along with the many others she’s made – shows that imanexperiment is more than a simple Hungarian space-pop studio rat. In addition to songwriting, singing, keyboard playing, production, and audio engineering, we now have to admit that she’s a talented video producer – and actor, to boot.
In fact, while we all struggled on how to survive working in quarantine, imanexperiment turned her bedroom into a disco and shot a video for her latest creation, a Ronettes hommage called Be Mine.
As if she weren’t busy enough – working on a new album and going back and forth from the studio to the stage – she also gives private lessons on audio engineering, music production, and the Mac OS digital sequencer software Ableton Live. She is also the subject of a documentary in production about people with unusual lifestyles.
Admittedly, when we think of Hungary, the first image to come to mind isn’t always that of etheric dream-pop with a dash of 80s new-wave nostalgia. But imanexperiment has never been one to conform to her surroundings. Instead, she asserts her individuality through artistic expression with a healthy dose of curiosity and enthusiasm – in true DIY fashion.
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