Captivating final video from ‘The Writers Trilogy’ EP, featuring Mina Nishimura
NEW YORK CITY | January 19, 2018 – New York’s Late Sea have been hard at work carefully crafting their dark brand of electronic sorcery. Their new video “Hunter” comes as the latest fantastical and spell-binding addition. Lead vocalist Izzy Gliksberg lays his distinct speak-sing vocals over lush, atmospheric soundscapes that both captivate and confound the listener. It’s a tricky thing to balance, but the band pulls off this juggling act effortlessly, with “Hunter” a prime example of their ability to create music that is simultaneously experimental and accessible. Today, “Hunter” comes as the third and final video off the band’s recently released EP The Writer’s Trilogy. As they did with their previous two singles “Ring The Bells” and “The Great White” Late Sea have created a stunning visual to accompany the song.
The video for “Hunter” is centered around the mesmerizing movement of Butoh dancer Mina Nishimura who choreographed her routine specifically for the song. Well-known in the NYC arts community, Nishimura has collaborated with artists including Celia Rowlson-Hall, Vicky Shick, and Ursula Eagly, as well as gaining popularity for her evocative performance on Saturday Night Live with Sia in 2015. In “Hunter”, Nishimura appears with striking silver hair, white make-up, and a flowing dress – an otherworldly mystique that she masterfully portrays. Set on a desolate beach, beneath a clouded sky, Nishimura dances within the confines of a glass cube that seeks to restrict and imprison her. Trapped inside, her character writhes and contorts in accordance with the pulse of the dark soundscape painted by Gliksberg and his bandmates in Late Sea. Reverb-drenched trumpet stabs, played by Sam Nester, echo over off-kilter rhythms and arpeggiated synth lines that float alongside the cry of a ghostly theremin. The tone of the composition, paired with Nishimura’s movement, works to great effect and makes for a video that is both visually engaging and thought provoking.
Nishimura shared her thoughts on the experience, “Dancing to Late Sea’s “Hunter” on a desolate beach was a profound and unforgettable experience, which resonated in my body for a long time. Gliksberg’s music spoke to my soul and to the deepest part of my body, and transported my mind to another world. Although the film was shot on a extremely cold day, my body was boiling from inside! I very much enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to be taken to such a deep internal journey by the mysteries and poesies of “Hunter.”
Inspired by Franz Kafka’s story The Hunter Gracchus the messages behind “Hunter” aren’t particularly easy to decipher, which just follows in true Kafka fashion, leaving interpretation open to the viewer. Gliksberg explains, “Kafka manages to make an improbable connection between the mystery of ‘being’ to the strangeness of modern day bureaucracy. Gracchus the hunter is both a mythical figure and a petty one. The story is impossibly bizarre, even by Kafka’s standards.” “Hunter” follows as the final video off Late Sea’s EP The Writers Trilogy, whose singles “Ring The Bells” and “The Great White” were each given their own masterfully-shot and provacative videos. “I’ve always loved songwriters such as Michael Stipe (REM) or Thom Yorke that can convey a very specific emotion in an abstract way,” reflected Gliksberg. “This way the songs remain open to endless interpretations while simultaneously conveying a specific emotion. It is quite paradoxical. This is one of my favorite paradoxes and I try to do it justice in my work. The Writers Trilogy was conceived as a visual EP, so from the get go I had ideas about what the visuals would look like. We brought rough versions of the songs to Andrey Alistratov and Hazuki Aikawa (the film makers) with half baked visual ideas and from then on we worked on the music with the visual inspiration in the back of our heads.”
Additionally, Late Sea also recently released a cover and video of Simon and Garfunkels “The Sound Of Silence“. The accompanying video, which was created using old war propaganda images and clips of nuclear missile tests, provides the background for a song that over 50 years after its original release, is still unfortunately relevant.
Late Sea’s The Writers Trilogy EP is available now to stream and purchase on iTunes, Spotify and all major digital retailers.
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ABOUT LATE SEA:
Late Sea is a NYC based avant-rock band led by composer and multi-instrumentalist Izzy Gliksberg The group is known for their dark ambient grooves which carry Izzy’s enigmatic Leonard Cohen like lyrics. Much of Late Sea’s work is dedicated to combining music and visuals. They have been a regular performer at House of Yes, live-scoring films such as Edward Scissorhands, Lost Highway and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Late Sea’s new debut EP is a hybrid of music and film. The EP, entitled The Writers Trilogy is a homage to three writers: Frantz Kafka, Baruch Spinoza and Paul Celan. Each track on the EP references one of the writers who dealt with the psychological and philosophical consequences of a culture that lost its God. Late Sea were the first and only music act that received the prestigious Kevin Spacey Artist of Choice Award for their visual EP The Writers Trilogy. The EP features videos from Emmy nominated director Andrey Alistratov and Producer Hazuki Aikawa. The project has been chosen to be developed and performed at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust earlier this year.
For The Writers Trilogy, Izzy was joined by internationally acclaimed trumpet player Sam Nester, producer Yoav Shemesh, and up and coming jazz drummer Joe Peri. The group has performed all around the East Coast in venues such as House of Yes, Drom, The Spectrum, Apple Studios, Exapno, The Living Room, Pete’s Candy Store, Silvana and MSM international webcast amongst others.
Izzy Gliksberg – Vocals and Guitar
Sam Nester – Trumpet and Samples, Electronics
Graham Doby – Drums
Kalen Lister – Keyboards and vocals
