Brooklyn-based project Helenor emboldens the sensations of grief on the new music video for “Bad2”, out today. Conceived by visual artist Indie DiMartino, you can watch the video for “Bad2” now premiering on the ugly hug.
Helenor is the creative DIY project of David DiAngelis, who, last month released his sophomore record, A public place, off of Mtn. Laurel Recording Co. After dropping everything and moving to New York as the pandemic let up, A public place is representative of this wandering – a buffer between where he’s been and where he’s going as the world seemingly blows by.
Opening A public place, “Bad2” grows from a mellow haze – an episode of brain fog reluctant to part as DiAngelis feels fated to grief’s plot. Though his life appears to be static, the song presses onward with a blend of grounded acoustic guitars and revitalizing synthesizers.
“This song is a soundtrack for pretending you have the ability to be present, so for the video we wanted it to feel like an erratic playback of memory,” DiAngelis says.
The music video consists of an impressive and sensory fulfilling array of filming techniques and artistic mediums, as DiMartino, the video’s creator, explains:
“The film for Bad2 exists as an erratic playback of a memory. To portray this feeling of messy dissociation, its process pulled from an array of experimental analog compositing practices and mediums. The project’s footage and titles were shot to 8mm film, with some shots relying on in camera mattes and rear projection. Just as well, some of these film scans were manually scrubbed through and reshot on an old LCD the width of a thumb. A quarter of the project’s runtime was physically printed and rescanned frame by frame. A technique was implemented to further distress these selected sequences by “hand-blooming” the highlights with paint and charcoal.”
Although these styles transition and blur, creating a feeling of disconnection between settings and sensations, the one thing that remains consistent through it all is DiAngelis’ presence, no matter how disorienting it may appear.
Helenor will be playing a Palestine Benefit Event along with Katy Kirby and Jules Olsen on May 21. You can stream A public place on all platforms as well as purchase it on vinyl or CD.