Simon Stålenhag is best known for his narrative art book Tales from the Loop, as well as some of his followups: Tales from the Flood, Electric State, and the upcoming The Labyrinth. Now, Stålenhag can add another line to his resume—director of film.
His latest work is a music video for Swedish artist, Duvchi, who’s set to release a new album in December, This Kind of Ocean. The album includes a new song ‘Geronimo’, featuring singer Nadia Nair.
The video looks as though it’s torn right out of one of Stålenhag’s books, opening with a penguin-like robot (named Hector), who discovers a piano in the middle of a granite quarry. As it sits down to play out the song, Stålenhag takes the camera under the water, where we see that he’s got a captive audience of fish and other strange aquatic life forms residing in the quarry.
It’s a beautifully-shot video, with gentle pans and zooms that perfectly accompany the music. It’s a bit of a surreal scene, but it’s one that feels as though it’s a snapshot from the larger retro-technologic world that Stålenhag is known for. You can see more of his work on Tumblr, and on his website (where you can also check out those books).
