Category Music
Published August 7, 2025
Rootless, 2022, by Liza Kvantaliani
Art is reflective. It is political and emotional. It dances on the edge of real-world experiences, holding up a mirror and showing an image distorted enough for the audience to look deeper, and look within.
Anman’s new single and subsequent music video, ‘Trampoline Man,’ is contemporary in the best of ways. It perfectly encapsulates the current state of our collective self—cheerfully overwhelmed, often overstimulated, and constantly angered by the unfairness of the social injustices taking place before our eyes.
The lyrics of the song are sharp yet genuine; the message is so important that the rhymes can’t help but be screamed in a cathartic, creative release. The strong bass and the speed of the song, which shifts suddenly from subtly melodic to fast-paced and sharp, leave the listener with a fresh presentation of the artist’s thoughts.
The music video sees Anman buried under an avalanche of amorphous, elongated objects, on the phone with multiple characters, each appearing in their own world. We get a glimpse into the other side of multiple phone calls as Anman gasps for air and experiences a very familiar informational crash-out. Reminiscent of the exhaustion we all experience after hours’ worth of content, news, and obscure information being unavoidably inflicted upon us, we get a visually refreshing and colourful interpretation of Anman’s cutting lyrics.
Out of genuine frustration that anyone with a phone and an internet connection rightfully shares, and a series of prank calls, Trampoline Man was born.
Trampoline Man - Anman, Anuka Kipshidze (Music Video)
“I once got too invested in a 2-year-long series of prank calls in which an Irish man was trying to sell me a trampoline. While my friends and I tried to work out his identity, ‘Trampoline Man’ became a metaphor for a looming faceless entity pranking us with the absurdity of life while we project deeper meanings, blame the will of the gods, and hope for karma.
“That’s how I went from writing about my mystery prank caller to ‘if karma was real, Putin would be burning in hell’. He’s always been the caricatured face of evil to me,” Anman shares on the inspiration behind the single.
COMPLETE SENSORY STIMULATION (in caps lock) is the perfect way to describe the beautiful combination of the Trampoline Man single and music video. Shot by emerging director/cinematographer Sandro Togonidze, starring Anman, who pours her whole self into the video, the clip encapsulated an emotional and visual payoff to the single.
Trampoline Man is made complete by a sculptural installation designed by Georgian multimedia artist, Yamadatesla (Tama Kvantaliani). The sculpture is seen stealing the show, living out its own story, and pretty much being a paid actor in the video.
Trampoline Man - Anman, Anuka Kipshidze (Music Video)
“I initially wanted to portray talking to this elusive character (trampoline man) on the phone and having intrusive visualisations of different faces he could have and places he could be calling from.”
“I think it ended up looking like different people I’m having different nonsense arguments with from my spiral of whimsical doom. The installation being wrapped around me felt like a visual representation of my inner chaos.”
“When I’m alone and I’m not being creative or doing something productive, I end up just mindlessly on my phone like many of us and start to drown in these remote, detached online interactions. My relationship to the rest of the world becomes strange in a way that I can’t fully describe.”
“I start to create narratives and perspectives that, later upon ‘touching grass’, feel blown out of proportion. I also become overwhelmed yet weirdly desensitised to what’s going on in the world. Without sounding too ‘smartphone made me dumb,’ I also wanted to capture this anxiety-inducing relationship with being chronically online.”
Anman, photo by @sixtwooo___
The artist’s work is colourfully chaotic and often takes a turn towards the surrealistic. Yet, it perfectly balances the task of taking the audience away from reality while addressing real-life issues. In her music, Anman blends her mind and her background—her self and the world she inhabits.
“My music has a lot of layers and shifts because my ADHD craves full audiovisual stimulation to be immersed in something.”
“And the Georgian polyphony I’ve grown up hearing is also a reason why I pack songs full of these punchy vocal layers, which in combination with my experimental theatre training results in a chaotic mishmash of genres to overstimulate people with.”
Anman’s art is rooted in twisted phrases and vivid metaphors. Even before pursuing music, she recognised the importance and the metamorphic quality of words.
“Before I collaborated with people who could make these musical compositions, I was writing performance pieces for which I’d make soundtracks with loops of Georgian chatter and tongue twisters. Some of it stemmed from the impossible task of translating the intricacies of my language and culture after moving to London as a child, and my love of alternative hip-hop was heavily inspired by my friends in London who listened to it.”
Anman
Trampoline Man is filled with real anger, an anger anyone who listens to her music should share. She uses her creativity as a sword, sharply cutting through the pointless barriers set by fearful people. It is representative of the genuine emotions we experience and the real frustrations that unite us.
“I guess everything I write has general leftist undertones and a hint of rage against whatever patriarchal/dogmatic/conservative notions have pissed me off that day. The democracy, gay rights, and freedom of speech being wiped out in Georgia are what’s currently on my mind. My friends and family have been protesting for over 30 weeks straight, and I’ve been in and out of the protests, but the rich and powerful dictators are getting their way so far.”
Follow Anman’s creative journey on Instagram – @anman.land
Listen to her Trampoline Man and more of her music on Spotify – Anman
Watch Trampoline Man music video on YouTube – Trampoline Man – Anman, Anuka Kipshidze (Music Video)
