First Watch: Gordi, 'So Here We Are'

Gordi (a.k.a. Sydney's Sophie Payten) isn't the first singer to dramatically manipulate her voice with a vocoder: The sound Imogen Heap helped popularize with 2005's "Hide And Seek" has become a go-to trick for everyone from James Blake and Bon Iver to Kanye West. On Gordi's debut EP, Clever Disguise, it's employed sparingly — but it helps make "So Here We Are" a gorgeous instant standout.

It only makes sense that the song's video — produced by Thomas Rawle, who handles animation and graphics, and PAXI, who shot the footage — would blur reality in similar ways. As Gordi sings in the back of a car, simple animation and other effects are laid over her face, creating an eerie, almost otherworldly effect. "The song is about all the things that have brought you to where you are right now," Gordi writes via email. "It's inspired by uncertainty and a willingness to see darkness that comes with pursuing the light."

Gordi's Clever Disguise EP is out now via Jagjaguwar.

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