Artist Martyyna is, without a doubt, a familiar name for our readers. Nearly two years ago, she released her introspective emo-electronica debut, Written in the Scars. Now, the producer and singer reflects on her academic work with her second EP, Informal Taipei. The opening track and video, “Taipei 01”, is landing for an exclusive Swine Daily premiere.
While Written in the Scars found Martyyna in a gloomy state of mind, building sonic bridges between the real and the dreamlike, the Prague-based producer is now stepping back from purely introspective work. Multiple layers of melodies still revolve around her signature heavenly vocals, but the EP leans heavily into ambient territories, channeling her long-term PhD research into the informal urban structures of the Taiwanese capital.
Grown directly from fieldwork conducted in the city, Informal Taipei serves as an expressive appendix to a dissertation that utilised music and soundscapes as a parallel method of observation. The project focuses on the affective, moral, and atmospheric qualities of informal spaces, revealing hidden emotional layers and the psychological impact of urban environments. It captures ambivalent moods and ephemeral perceptions that came with walking, observing, and returning to particular areas over time.
By simulating the perspective of security cameras, the accompanying video—developed by visual artist and good friend Tereza Metalová directly from images and texts shaping the dissertation—shifts attention toward a hidden urban layer that is rarely perceived directly. Although composed entirely of photographs gathered over a decade of research, the images do not remain still. Through slow movement, zoom, and rhythm, the static frames begin to breathe, allowing the rooftop landscape to unfold as a living terrain shaped by time, weather, and everyday use. As the opening text suggests: “Above Taipei, the rooftops reveal a hidden world (…) diverse lives intertwine in a rhythm of freedom and struggle.”
Much like its visuals, „Taipei 01“ finds no clear line between the formal and the informal: ethereal vocals accompany field recordings of rain drumming on rooftops, the sounds of nature and the city blend together. At no point does Martyyna offer comparative or evaluative statements; instead, the poetry reveals itself in the blur—where the formal and informal create a unique urban symbiosis, offering new possibilities for spatial representation and understanding.
Release date: 13.05. 2026
Video: Tereza Metalová (footage by Martyyna)
Mix/master: Ancestral Vision
Cover: photo Iryna Drahun, graphics Jan Novák
Styling: @6wordbodie
Makeup: @bebikmua
Text: Timon Láska
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