Kivi
Watershed
Album · Tai-Pop · 2022 · Nanguaq Co., Ltd.
Straddling the line between her Indigenous heritage and contemporary urban life in Taiwan, singer-songwriter Kivi moulds multiple genres and languages into a powerful and resonant sound. Her debut album Watershed, released at the age of 25, marks a coming of age and pays homage to her roots—the album’s Paiwan name, “Padiyudr”, refers to the mountain divide in Pingtung County she hails from. Kivi (Kivi Pasurivai) built an online following with acoustic songs posted from the bedroom before making a splash on the talent show Jungle Voice 2 in 2019. Her contribution to 《N1》/ Nanguaq No. 1, a 2021 collection of Indigenous electronic artists, was a psychedelic cut with production by Paiwan singer-songwriter ABAO and award-winning producer Huang Shao Yong, who did the same for this album. Kivi taps stylistic influences from jazz to hip-hop and R&B to capture aspects of a life spent between rural Taiwan and the bright lights of the city. On “Parius”, a tribute to her hometown, a Paiwan chorus anchors a ballad with some of the album’s few Mandarin lyrics. Elsewhere, spare arrangements of the folk tunes “Enelja Laleselan” and “Luljemai” accentuate the subtleties of her voice, lush orchestration gives her rendition of “Paiwan Hymn” a stately reverence and rock guitar and a big band fusillade energise the seaside nostalgia of “Black Beauty”. “Don’t Lie”, a swaggering collab with rappers HengJones and R.fu, interweaves her effervescent vocals with predominantly Mandarin rap verses exploring love and betrayal. “There is so much beauty in this world,” she breathes over the album’s instrumental introduction. Her evocative compositions bear this out.
Watershed
Kivi
Straddling the line between her Indigenous heritage and contemporary urban life in Taiwan, singer-songwriter Kivi moulds multiple genres and languages into a powerful and resonant sound. Her debut album Watershed, released at the age of 25, marks a coming of age and pays homage to her roots—the album’s Paiwan name, “Padiyudr”, refers to the mountain divide in Pingtung County she hails from. Kivi (Kivi Pasurivai) built an online following with acoustic songs posted from the bedroom before making a splash on the talent show Jungle Voice 2 in 2019. Her contribution to 《N1》/ Nanguaq No. 1, a 2021 collection of Indigenous electronic artists, was a psychedelic cut with production by Paiwan singer-songwriter ABAO and award-winning producer Huang Shao Yong, who did the same for this album. Kivi taps stylistic influences from jazz to hip-hop and R&B to capture aspects of a life spent between rural Taiwan and the bright lights of the city. On “Parius”, a tribute to her hometown, a Paiwan chorus anchors a ballad with some of the album’s few Mandarin lyrics. Elsewhere, spare arrangements of the folk tunes “Enelja Laleselan” and “Luljemai” accentuate the subtleties of her voice, lush orchestration gives her rendition of “Paiwan Hymn” a stately reverence and rock guitar and a big band fusillade energise the seaside nostalgia of “Black Beauty”. “Don’t Lie”, a swaggering collab with rappers HengJones and R.fu, interweaves her effervescent vocals with predominantly Mandarin rap verses exploring love and betrayal. “There is so much beauty in this world,” she breathes over the album’s instrumental introduction. Her evocative compositions bear this out.
