AIJOU & Viticz Find Joy In Tackling Grief On Their Latest Hyperpop/J-pop Mini Album

Viticz and AIJOU are putting their spin on Singaporean J-pop (Credit: Marc Clarence)

The processing of grief, while externally universal, is a subjective experience. For Singaporean singer-songwriter AIJOU and electronic producer Viticz, they break down the complex stages of grief and poetically reshape them into environmental themes: snow, sea, space and sky. It’s a riveting premise that the two musicians – fortuitously and artistically bound by their mutual affection for J-pop – have constructed on Senses, a recently launched mini-album with maximalist intentions. Together, they reinterpret the inherently human emotion through a shared lens, one tinted with hyperpop flashes and electronica augmentations.

Since meeting in 2021, the two local artists have embarked on a conjoined path while checking off boxes in their individual arcs. AIJOU performs bilingually in English and Japanese, and she was part of *SCAPE’s Alt. Residency Programme in 2023 when she released her debut EP Loving, Love Dying. She’s also performed at the comma festivals’ Music Day Out event and Anime Festival Asia. As for Viticz, he appeared on our radar as one-part of viral DJ collective Four Teh and anime party crew cawfeeMIX!. Beyond that, he’s an accomplished producer who released his debut album Guidance in 2022.

This new album follows their preceding collaborative single “Not Alone” released in 2022 (Credit: Marc Clarence)

Their latest collaboration, Senses, is a culmination of their creative friendship and musical intersections, elevating each other across of a melange of rousing numbers. “In The Snow” is an effervescent and luminous opener introduced by AIJOU’s bright innocent vocals and Viticz’s glossy production. It starts out sparse yet strident with trickling hi-hats and globular bass notes, before blooming to reveal more rhythmic percussions and ultimately, a climactic house-inflected conclusion with the vitality of a 2006 Genki Rockets track. “Sea Travels” enraptures like a gossamer, cosy dream you don’t want to wake up from, wrapped in ethereal echoes and AIJOU’s multi-layered harmonies like a siren calling out from sea. And ending the album on a high, “Lonely” shatters its sorrowful prologue with EDM build-ups and D&B deluges, accented with AIJOU’s processed vocals switching between crushing aggression and delicate whimsy.

It’s a match made in heaven when these two minds meld and wield a collective fantasy. And Senses just makes perfect sense.