Rock band SQÜRL have shared the second single from their forthcoming album Silver Haze which will released on May 5 by Sacred Bones .
The duo released the first glimpse of their first full-length album last month with the song ” Berlin ’87 ” which The FADER called “ a slurry of post-rock and drone.”
Today SQÜRL share a second look at the record with the song “John Ashbery Takes A Walk (feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg)” in which two of the poet’s works are read by Charlotte Gainsbourg . The track is accompanied with a video created by Jem Cohen .
In the press release SQÜRL describes the meaning behind their latest tune.
“‘John Ashbery Takes A Walk’ celebrates the influence of our artistic godfathers, the New York School Poets. Two of Ashbery’s earliest poems, ‘Le Livre est sur la Table,’ and ‘Some Trees,’ are recited by the remarkable Charlotte Gainsbourg, her ethereal voice floating above SQÜRL’s psychedelic landscape of guitars, percussion, and electronics. And once again filmmaker Jem Cohen has created a meditative visual accompaniment revealing the joy and stillness found in the small details of ordinary life.”
Cohen adds: “As a filmmaker I didn’t want to directly illustrate a poet’s words; I wanted to circle them. And I don’t want to distract from a song; I look for images that invite closer listening, that resonate, but not too loudly. So I dug into my footage archive and then sought out more reverberations upstate where Jim, Carter, and I all spend a lot of time. Houses, ‘some trees’ of course; and any blank slates on which the track could land.
The director continues with: I was especially happy to find that mysteriously wrecked house with late sun in just one window. If you stuck a pin in a map, my circling was all within an hour of a particular house – the one Ashbery lived in for close to 40 years. Through their song’s shimmering guitar, steadfast rhythm, and Gainsbourg’s beautiful voice, Jim and Carter found a way to stroll with the poet. Hope I did too.”
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