Release Date: 5th September 2025
In ‘Breathe Out’, Mieko delivers a hauntingly elegant visual that mirrors the evolving emotion of the song itself. Featuring the signature style of dancer Violet Savage, the video unfolds in a series of ethereal, slow-moving sequences that blend abstract movements with intimate close-ups.
Set against a stark backdrop, Violet Savage offers a striking solo performance — a hypnotic blend of control and release that echoes the song’s intimate vulnerability. Her movement tells a wordless story, drawing the viewer into a physical language of breath, resistance, and flow.
diz_qo’s direction lends the piece a dreamlike quality, layering textural close-ups, atmospheric pacing, and restrained editing to create a sense of suspended time. The result is a video that feels less like a traditional music promo and more like a short art film —
quietly powerful, emotionally charged, and rich with symbolism.
Mieko Shimizu
Mieko Shimizu is a boldly nonconformist Japanese singer, songwriter, composer and producer. Based in London, Mieko Shimizu has released numerous albums and singles, as she continues to make her mark on avant-garde and experimental genres.
She first erupted onto the scene as Apache 61; her searing alter ego, fusing layers of cross-woven breaks and battling shards of sub-bass within stateless melodies drawn from the fringes of the avant-garde. As Mieko Shimizu, her last album, ‘My Tentacles’ saw her return to a deeper, more reflective state in the cavernous depth of beautiful symphonic songs that oscillated with glitchy electronica.
‘My Tentacles’ album took five years to write. However, she almost abandoned her plans to make it when she was admitted to hospital for two life-threatening operations. While in hospital, a heroin addict was moved into the bed next to Mieko and began to terrorise the ward. The only thing that would calm the mayhem was an old Scottish lady singing traditional folk songs. It was listening to the lady, and seeing the effect that her singing was having, that made Mieko realise the power of music, and this gave her the resolve to finish her album.
What resulted is ‘I Bloom’, a luscious record of interleaving haunting melodies, boasting songs that are both beautiful in their sincerity and tantalising in their simplicity. Her unerring elegance and undying passion take you on a journey from hidden places across emotional landscapes to distant nebulae. On this record, Mieko collaborated with William D Drake of The Cardiacs. She worked with Japan’s Mick Karn, Nitin Sawhney and the London Symphony Orchestra on the Japanese silent film ‘Yogoto no Yume’. Mieko has also worked with David Cunningham from The Flying Lizards, Robert Lippok of To Rococo Rot, and re-mixed the likes of Coldcut. Haruomi Hosono of the cult electro-pop act ‘Yellow Magic Orchestra’ signed Mieko to his label ‘Daisy World’.
Word quickly spread of her incredible live shows, bringing forth a stream of live shows in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Japan. Mieko also played at Sonar, alongside the mighty Kraftwerk and supported Massive Attack at their Melt Down Festival with Riz MC, AKA actor Riz Ahmed. She has produced scores for contemporary dance company Phoenix Dance Theatre as well as the Ballet ‘The Red Balloon’ at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre. She was made an ‘Emerging Artist in Residence’ at London’s Southbank Centre where she collaborated with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on her own compositions.
In her new live shows, Mieko combines ancient and modern. She is currently a resident artist for the touring sonic meltdown Wonky Plonky Electronk, who have visited venues across London and the South East of England. Whilst playing alongside experimental powerhouses including Dhangsha, Space Afrika, and Wrangler at these shows, Mieko is gearing up for more releases in 2025, including a fresh EP and a re-visited Apache 61 project.
diz_qo
@diz_qo has been reasonably visual for a few decades now, creating video art in both analogue and digital spaces.
@diz_qo’s early experiments tinkered with tape/slide, 16mm film, & video art, whilst part of the Colosseum Project / Luna Nera art collective, who created site-specific events - primarily using abandoned buildings & found materials. This formative period in analogue experimentation laid the foundation for a visually rich and emotionally resonant style that now thrives in digital environments.
Over the years, @diz_qo has brought their distinct vision to lighting and video design for a diverse range of artists including Kanye West, Friendly Fires, Cat Stevens, Feeder, Embrace, Yazoo, Kim Wilde, The Rakes, Plan B, Clean Bandit, Franz Ferdinand, & many more.
@diz_qo has also worked as Creative Director/ editor for music videos & visualisers for Mieko Shimizu, Thin Lizzy, Stereolab, The Witching Tale, Ali Farka Touré, The Kinks, Kumo, Can, Metamono, Son Of Dave, Supergrass, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Japan, Marianne Faithful, Leona Lewis, Liam Payne, Jeff Goldblum, Clannad, Buena Vista Social Club, Georgia, among others.
This chapter shaped both a technical foundation and a creative methodology that opened up a multi-dimensional lens through which to perceive the world.
Lately, @diz_qo has re-engaged with the live, experiential space - crafting a renewed emotional visual language through video installations and immersive projection design for Wonky Plonky Electronk events, iKlectik, Coastal Electronaut’s International Drone Day & Synth & Electronic Meet-up Sessions, Orbscure Festival, Delaware Festival, Intrinsic, Alchemy, & Cluster events.
@diz_qo is the point on a graph where x meets y. The overlap on a Venn diagram. The space between our lives.
Violet Savage is a movement artist from London. Since graduating in 2024 from Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, she has performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Copper Box Arena in London, and Theatre Chaillot in Paris with choreographer Holly Blakey. She has also worked as a dancer in performances at the V&A with Clod Ensemble and Thick and Tight. In her own work she is interested in improvisation and regularly collaborates with dancers as well as artists from other disciplines on short films, music videos and live performances at venues including Somerset House (AGM 2024), Ormside Projects and Spanners in London. This year she is developing her practice on the Conditions Studio Programme, furthering her research into the relationships between stillness, movement, silence and noise, and dance as both a metaphor and practice of making sense. Hers is a language of unspoken words, expressions which remain unsaid through the fluidity of movement, tactile and yet intangible at once.
Violet Savage
Credits:
Music: Mieko Shimizu
Director: diz_qo / Peter Morris
Editor: diz_qo
Art Direction: diz_qo / Mieko Shimizu
Dancer: Violet Savage
Producer: Peter Morris
Production Assistant / Hair & Make-up: Sasha Davies
Location: Fresh Fusion Studios
Facilities Manager : Zack
Label : Street Records
