「Pure Virtual」

Élodie Dumortier, called 「 Pure Virtual 」 by their fans, is well known both within and outside vaporwave communities on the internet. Prior to their unfortunate identity release upon their acceptance to Hope’s Peak Academy in Japan, the artist known only as 「 Pure Virtual 」 made splashes across multiple platforms. While they got their start on Soundcloud, as most vaporwave artists do, theirmusic has been featured on radio stations globally, from niche EDM stations to stations with more of an emphasis on the mainstream as their popularity grew.

Little about 「 Pure Virtual 」 was known until recently, as the elusive artist has maintained an emphasis on their music being more representative of her true self than any name, gender, age, or location could hope to be. Most articles about 「 Pure Virtual 」 have opted for they/them pronouns to describe the artist as any indication of gender has been hidden until the recent revelation of her real, allegedly feminine birth name prompting an uptick in articles featuring she/her pronouns to describe them.

What’s known about 「 Pure Virtual 」 is as follows: they have been a part of the vaporwave movement since its incubation, they have an uncanny habit for being a trend starter in the community, their debut album remains the second most played vaporwave album of all time (only beaten by Macintosh Plus’s album Floral Shoppe), their music features languages from all over the world, and they’ve become popular to the point that they were briefly shunned by other vaporwave artists for having reached mainstream. After this temporary dive in popularity, they came out with 1398 E M O T I O N ライフサイン. The album is partially chopped up 80s tracks, partially completely original content, and allegedly tells a story about the death of the universe through love.

The following surge in popularity is what resulted in 「 Pure Virtual 」’s invitation to HPA, which in turn resulted in the revelation of their true identity as Élodie Dumortier, a French politician’s child currently studying abroad in Japan. The buzz surrounding their true identity has only proved to be more and more profitable as their music continues to get more hits, though it’s theorized that they may quit the music scene now that their information is public.