Introducing Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best new art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. Today we take a look at “Mausoleum Of My Former Self” from Gruff Rhys.
Today our video of the week comes from Gruff Rhys, with his video for ‘Mausoleum Of My Former Self’, the third single from his new album Seeking New Gods. Rhys worked on the album with his long-time collaborator, Mark James, who also art directed the album and corresponding music videos. Speaking of the song, Rhys said ‘Mausoleum Of My Former Self’ is about: ‘“Human aging— people become different people but they’re still an avatar for who they used to be.”
Rhys’ latest release follows his last album, Pang!, which Rhys recorded after a tour around America. Rhys has said that Seeking New Gods – which started as an attempted biography of Mount Paektu (an active volcano in East Asia) – ended up taking a more personal turn: “The album is about people and the civilisations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time. How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time. It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind. You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.”
Rhys has also announced a special, ‘immersive’ version of the album released in partnership with BBC Research & Development, making use of their Audio Orchestrator tool. To experience the immersive version of Seeking New Gods follow this link to BBC Taster to listen to the album through multiple devices connected at once for 360° audio.
You can watch the music video for ‘Mausoleum Of My Former Self’ below.
Seeking New Gods is available to stream on Spotify here.
