With its delicate instrumentation and haunting harmonies, Bonnie “Prince” Billy‘s “Willow, Pine and Oak” showcases the artist’s ability to transport listeners to a realm of introspection and contemplation.
Like lullaby and nursery rhyme, Billy imparts the song in patient and bite-size thoughts that allows his lyrical prowess to shine brightly while the artist weaves into emotions and meanings of his words.
The instrumentation is fantastic by how the deft strings along with the intimate guitar playing contributes to the song’s ethereal quality and its dreamlike atmosphere.
Speaking on the conception and execution of the music video, director Jacob Forman says: “When first proposing the video to me, Will posed it as challenge of sorts— to stray from my typical home of the handheld camera and attempt to capture that same sort of intimacy with a tripod. To “lock it down,” in his words. He mentioned Dreyer specifically as a filmmaker he was thinking about, so ORDET was an early visual inspiration… though over time as I listened to the song more I began to think more about the Bergman-Nyqvist collaborations more so as a visual influence.”
Forman adds: Days before shooting I remember reading about Pedro Costa’s technique of honing natural light with mirrors, which gave his digital cinematography a striking (almost dreamy) look. This actually ended up working far better for lighting our black and white 16mm shots more than anything, as we were able to create harsh shadows with a beautiful golden early morning sun.”
Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You allows Billy to let it all out, to let go again and suggest to us all that we should get while the getting is good. There are three types of people in this world “Willow, Pine and Oak.” Which one are you?
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