Kelly Moran releases the official music video for "Water Music," one of the standout pieces from her acclaimed LP Ultraviolet. The video, directed by her close collaborator Katharine Antoun, pays homage to Moran's transcendent experience in the woods of Long Island, one which inspired the making of Ultraviolet.
"On the day I made the music that eventually became this record, I went swimming in the ocean and for the first time went far past my comfort zone in the water," says Moran. "I'm usually too skittish to go deeper than my ankles, but I felt completely uninhibited that day and actually let myself swim and feel the weight of my body disappear in the water. With this newly achieved sense of freedom and looseness, I attempted to bring that feeling back to my studio when I played piano later that day."
"Water Music" features vivid, textural explosions made from Turkish marbling techniques as well as epi-fluorescent footage of plant cells and various chemical reactions, all to a refined psychedelic effect. Intercut with intimate shots of Moran and culminating in the emergence of a supreme being, designed by visual artist Cassie McQuater, the video combines a few interdisciplinary techniques, merging the natural world with the digital.
It also speaks to the collaborative nature of the original song, which features additional production and synth by Oneohtrix Point Never, with whom Moran also toured as a member of his MYRIAD ensemble. Antoun and Moran are longtime friends who've connected visually throughout much of the Ultraviolet experience, and McQuater commissioned Moran to score her recent video installation Love Birds, Night Birds, Devil-Birds, which premiered at Frieze in Los
Angeles last month.
McQuater also designed some of the live visuals that Moran has been touring extensively with as of late. She's currently wrapping up a string of European dates, including sold out debuts in Berlin, London and Manchester, with state-side performances at Moogfest, Mutek SF, and
Roulette (NYC) to follow. Full tour routing below.
Ultraviolet, Moran's debut for Warp Records, received nearly universal praise upon its release in
November 2018, including
Pitchfork noting of its best electronic albums of 2018 "the liquidity of her playing finally overwhelms the containers she's created for it, spilling over and splashing out. The excess is thrilling." and
Exclaim saying the album "is indebted to the charm of the natural world, but with it, Moran unlocks dazzling new ones in the process."
Tour Dates:
04.07.19: BRDCST @ Ancienne Belgique (Brussels, Belgium)
04.27.19: Moogfest @ Carolina Theatre (Durham, NC)
05.03.19: MUTEK San Francisco @ Herbst Theatre (San Francisco, CA)
05.11.19: End to End @ Camp North End (Charlotte, NC)
05.20.19: Roulette (Brooklyn, NY)
06.06.19: Villette Sonique (Paris, France)
07.20.19: Sónar (Grand Piano A/V Live) (Barcelona, Spain)
09.01.19: End of the Road Festival (Dorset, United Kingdom)
Credit: Tim Saccenti
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