Jaguar Jonze returns with a brand new, intimate body of work in ‘victim impact statement’, ending a complete social media blackout from the Taiwanese-Australian singer/producer, songwriter and multimedia artist.

Comprised of an EP, featuring three new, powerful tracks, an accompanying self-directed short film, self-portrait album artwork, and an evocative release statement – ‘victim impact statement’ sees Jaguar Jonze reassert her creative vision and artistry with a project that signifies a creative rebirth for the artist.

Read the statement here

The launch of ‘victim impact statement’ comes after five years spent at the frontlines of the #MeToo movement in Australia, with Jonze often putting her own creative endeavours aside to advocate for change that would see assault survivors like herself better protected.

This new, comprehensively curated project sees Jonze once again flexing her multidisciplinary muscle with one driving message – she will not be constrained to a box of anyone else’s devising. In sharing with the world the emotions from victim impact statement, Jaguar Jonze announces her return to the spotlight on her own terms, a freedom to create and be an artist without conditions imposed upon her.  

Raw, honest, and confronting, Jaguar Jonze shifts away from the fire and experimentalism of the highly-praised previous album, ‘Bunny Mode’ with these three tracks on ‘victim impact statement’. Vocals up close, Jaguar Jonze opens up, completely vulnerable, to share her pain, her grief, and with that, her strength. Production pared-back to acoustic guitar, a Rhodes keyboard, a few airy pads, and haunting harmonies, allowing the focus to be on Jaguar Jonze’s journey, through heartbreak to embracing the next chapter in her creative endeavours. ‘victim impact statement’ is a moving 10-minute tale, told in 3 acts, leaving you emotionally-drained with minimal effort.

Jonze’s writing, recording, and mixing on the EP brings to life the intensely emotional journey told across the project’s three songs. The stripped back acoustic melodies of “whiplash” open the record with a commanding statement about Jonze’s journey over the past five years, with gentle-yet-powerful vocals that convey a deep grief as she sings “Feel like I’m doing the time for somebody’s mistake…”. Second track “nothing left ” begins with a breathy whisper that belies a strong despondency at Jonze’s treatment by the outside world, with the richly layered production reminiscent of the clinically detached way the world has demanded a performance of Jonze as an activist. Closing track “full stop ” represents the closure of one chapter and a simultaneous new beginning for Jonze, with its assertive and hopeful, almost triumphant, undertone recognising her determination to return to her calling of creating art.

The accompanying short film, also entitled ‘victim impact statement’ and created by Jaguar Jonze, viscerally encapsulates the intense journey that she has been through over five years with the same smoothly flowing journey as the EP. At times wistful and despondent, while being defiant and assertive in other purposefully provocative moments, the short film chronicles the pervasiveness of Jonze’s ordeal through many aspects of her life over the past five years and rejects the notion that she should perform as dictated by outdated societal structures.

Sonically, the delicate, soaring melodies of ‘victim impact statement’ is a left-turn from the edgy sound fans would be more familiar with across Jaguar Jonze’s previous releases, including the dark leaning pop of her 2022 debut album BUNNY MODE. This shift is deliberate...

With the release of her new EP, Jonze has penned her own ‘victim impact statement’ to provide her own closure, while also marking the beginning of her next chapter – both musically and personally. For her next chapter, Jonze is turning her attention to a potential second album, working with notable international collaborators to pave the way for a new direction.

Where Jaguar Jonze’s 2022 debut album ‘BUNNY MODE’ saw her triumphant and unwilling to be complicit in a culture, and industry, of silence – ‘victim impact statement’ is a bold reclamation of self and the start of what comes next. It sees Jaguar Jonze taking back the pieces of herself she has tirelessly given away – her body, her art, her voice.

'victim impact statement’ will also be available for purchase in a highly limited vinyl release, with Jonze once again turning her hand to photography under her Dusky Jonze moniker to self-shoot the album.