Electropop singer/producer duo Sylvan Esso have released the music video for a glitchy new track called “Frequency.” The video was directed by their friend, singer/songwriter Moses Sumney.
It’s one of Sylvan Esso’s glitchiest songs yet instrumentally, and vocalist Amelia Meath brings out the catchy melodies she’s known for. She sings about a woman that brings joy to her life, “Oh now, feel that sound/Rushing through the fields and flowers/Her voice coming through my dial/She’s the one, I swear to God/A frequency, she’s got a frequency/And I want it all over me.”
The video shows Meath dancing in a woman’s front lawn by a golf course. As the video continues, passing people join her and sync with her highly choreographed movements until the woman in the house eventually comes outside and joins Meath and the other people disappear. The two mirror each other for a while, face to face in a close dance. The dancing was choreographed by Stewart/Owen Dance, a duo who also participated as dancers in it.
Sylvan Esso commented on the video in a press release, “We had a fantastic and rewarding time collaborating with our friend and fellow North Carolinian, Moses Sumney, on building a visual world for “Frequency.” He had such a beautiful vision for the project, one that ran parallel to the song’s initial source in a way that showed us new spaces it could inhabit. It’s a beautiful exploration of being together and apart at the same time—we feel it rings clearly in this moment.”
“Frequency” is the third single from Sylvan Esso’s upcoming album, Free Love, which is due on September 25 via Loma Vista. The lead single, “Ferris Wheel,” is an energetic tune that came with a video showing Meath dancing around an empty ferris wheel and fairgrounds. “Rooftop Dancing” continues the positivity over a beat that uses bubbly vocal samples, and came with a video showing rollerblading, skateboarding and general wild living.
In April, the duo released a live album from their late 2019 WITH tour to streaming. They said on the Bandcamp page that the album, and the whole tour, was just something they did for fun and for their fans.
Moses Sumney has also released new music this year, a double album called Græ, which was released in full in May. He directed the music video for one of his songs from it, called “Cut Me,” as well as the video for his rework of the Olympic Anthem called “Monumental.”
Photo credit: Sharon Alagna