Debut EP from Vivi Ash

Newcomer Vivi Ash is a phenomenon wrapped in mystery, drifting in from somewhere between the Carpathian mountains and a forgotten fairy tale. Her music feels like a spell whispered through ancient forests, yet it pulses with the electricity of modern pop. Taking inspiration from the likes of Billie Eilish but walking firmly in her own direction, Vivi Ash has spent the past year forging her own alternative pop vision tinged with a sense of mythology.

Her arrival last year with “Midnight Rendezvous” marked an exciting debut, lit in neon and shadow, offering the first taste of a genre-fluid, mood-soaked approach to songwriting. She followed it with “Thunder Goddess,” a fierce counterpoint that shimmered with intensity. Both singles hinted at a modern pop poet drawing from mysticism, moonlight and the threads of emotion.

Now, with the release of her debut EP titled Don’t Cry, Vivi Ash offers her most complete statement yet. Across five tracks, she blurs the line between pop, indie and anti-pop, using delicacy as a kind of strength and silence as its own kind of sound.

The title track, “Don’t Cry (I’m Not Your Curse),” is a hypnotic outing centred around an acoustic guitar that feels both fragile and grounding, cradling Vivi Ash’s voice as it explores sorrow with a strange serenity. Capturing the voice of someone who’s known heartbreak, perhaps intimately, but chooses to watch it like theatre now, she offers an emotive acoustic pop outing brimming with delicate arrangement, poignant lyricism and floating vocal performance.

Elsewhere on the EP, she dances between subtlety and defiance; songs like “Tangled Hearts” frame her alluring voice in an atmospheric scene carried by a soft beat. “Heart in Pieces” delivers a danceable synth pop sound cut with bubbling instrumentation and moody vocal performance spinning infectious melodic hooks. On “Fake Love,” she casts a stunning R&B-inflected jam that grooves with crisp beats and catchy vocal leads.

Closing with “Somebody Like You,” her hushed vocals hover above an elegant arrangement to form an absorbing alternative pop soundscape cut with laid back beats and warm instrumentation. Whether she’s leaning into layered production or paring everything back to just voice and minimal instrumentation, she lets the listener lean in rather than shouting to be heard. With the Don’t Cry EP, she establishes herself as more than a musical a storyteller with an engaging sound, crafting songs that are equally meaningful and instantly memorable.

Listen to Don’t Cry below