Visual experiment tracks musician’s life with the four elements.

In a battery of the senses, Petite Noir has produced a stunning visual four-part album in collaboration with Red Bull Music.

With it, the South African musician tells his story from a young Yannick Ilunga, as he was in the Congo, to a global superstar. Here is all you need to know:


– The four-part La Maison Noir is a compelling watch and listen, the musical direction provided by Petite Noir with the Noir Wave, made up of director and creative director Rochelle Nembhard, dancer and choreographer Manthe Ribane, and art director Gabrielle Kannemeyer.

– The collective travelled to Namibia for the shoot, tapping into the four elements of the album in the process: fire, eart, air and water.

– The landscape is further lit up by stunning costumes and flowing robes, each one representing the four phases of the film. Red represents fire, white the air, brown symbolising the earth, and water being captured with blue.


– Petite Noir will also release a six-track La Maison Noir EP, which was partly recorded at the Red Bull Music Studio in Cape Town.

– Petite Noir said: “The visual album is a cosmogram – a constant circular motion of the element that symbolises rebirth. We all go through rebirth every few years.”

– Nembhard, meanwhile, said: “I liked the idea of the desert because it is stripped bare and speaks to how we are born with nothing, and was a representation of being true to self. The landscape of Namibia gives you different realities and plays with space. It’s sculptural with lots of form.”

All Photo from Red Bull Content Pool