D'ombre et de glace (l'asphyxie)

To paraphrase, he simply said
"This is the idea of the song, I trust you to do what you do with it"
and the bonfire was lit again.

I've had a lot of opportunities in my career in music and film-making to create visual narrative content. A brief scroll through the Hypnotic Dirge Records YouTube page reminds me that in their space alone I've created a dozen music videos over the last decade. It's great to see how many people have seen this corner of my work and how much my capability has evolved and my skills have improved over that time.

One aspect stands out to me throughout.
People trusted me to do something interesting to explore the story of their music.

I always find it a privilege and a gift when an artist brings me a song and a concept and says "Make something that compliments my intentions," and I always love the challenge of channeling their intention through my vision.

Norilsk, a veteran doom metal project of Eastern Canadian legacy, has long supported my exploration in this regard.

Sharing a label association via HDR, I've known of and come to know Norilsk (and specifically bassist/vocalist Nicolas Miquelon) very well. The focus and appreciation for history, nature, and the human experience that exists between has been an aspect of their creative process that I have long appreciated. I appreciate any band that puts message to music with weight, and they have always had more to offer than just great, heavy noise.

Over the years, shooting for Norilsk has provided my opportunity to explore the landscape of my own home and community. I've shot many videos for many international artists through HDR and due to limited budgets and distance between myself and artists, I've had the opportunity to cultivate a short film style presentation of music videos. No instruments, no band members. I am tasked to expand the world of their sound without their presence visually. Thankfully, I have always been surrounded by a bounty of natural environments, willing actors, friends, and artists to collaborate and create beautiful and atmospheric visual aids. Norilsk has provided more opportunities to do so than most others and every few years offering me a song or two with an accompanied inspiration and lyrics and left me to my own devices.

There is nothing more validating as an artist than
"Here's a general idea, I trust you to do something I'll enjoy. Do what feels right to you."

This project was the absolute embodiment of that and became the most necessary kindling for me to return to doing what I forgot how to love.

To tell a story.

"D'ombre et de glace (l'asphyxie)" is an attempt to capture the powerful emotions of powerlessness, restlessness, loss, and the chaos of inevitability within the confines of a single scene.

From Nicolas Miquelon:
"This song is about anhedonia: the inability to feel anything, and the feeling that someone or something took something away from you. As if your world’s outside crust gets turned inward and your core becomes one cold place. There is an analogy with the quallupilluk, an inuit mythical creature that takes children away."

Nic simply said "I think it would be cool to do a video underwater" and while one might assume living in Saskatchewan in the middle of a consistently -40C Winter may require me to decline this idea - I am not proficient in saying no, nor refusing a challenge that seemed interesting.

So I would find a way.

Previously, we had shot a music video for San Fransisco based Forlesen that involved an underwater shot accomplished with a very sophisticated and expensive technical marvel that rivals the most bloated Marvel CGI budget.

(a camera, in a small aquarium, in my bathtub and an actor willing to inverted-ly waterboard himself for art - Thanks Stamos!)

So we figured, hey, this technique but in a larger space would do it yeah?

After a few weeks of requests thrown into Saskatchewan film industry group chats and asking all the much better connected and capable directors I know in the community, I was contacted by a wonderful woman in Indian Head, Saskatchewan who had a lead. Within a few weeks, we were booked to film in a personal pool house located on a farm 20 minutes from my own home in rural SK.

Sarah Fiset, an absolutely incredible contortionist, clown, hoop artist that I'd worked with previous, enthusiastically joined the project and before long on a bright sunny afternoon we were in the pool thrashing and screaming under the surface of the water in this beautiful pool house.

It was a really interesting experience to keep a camera steady within an aquarium submerged in a pool. The sticky-tac holding the camera in position could only do so much against the humidity of the room, but once we got our distances and focuses set, that beautiful kindling had grown into a joyous blaze.

It's hard to express how much I enjoyed this process. Standing in the pool exploring the visual impact of bubbles, figuring out the best timing and placement to capture an underwater scream, and on the fly figuring out ways to connect our shots in this scene to another connected video [foreshadowing] brought me back to why I love to create.

Sparks of inspiration in the moment.
Sharing in the excitement of the shot with everyone else on set.
Knowing what you're doing will be something that someone will enjoy.
That's it.
That's all it needs to be.

That's why.

Inspiration.
Community.
Connection.

Beautiful.

The editing process was relatively simple and straight forward. Splice up the best moments, arrange them in a way that shares the pace and intensity of the music, try to string together a loose enough narrative to keep an audience engaged in your character.

While I have more to say about character and captivation in the near future [also foreshadowing] I can honestly say that completing this video and watching it back reminded me why I picked up a camera in the first place and why I need to continue to do so. Norilsk provided an opportunity to remember why I love creating. My collaborators on and off screen reminded me how much better I can create with the talents and skills of those around me, and the response to the video even within these last 24 hours has reminded me that there is an audience for the weird nonsense that appears in my brain and yearns to exist in a tangible space.

That said, sometimes that nonsense is a slow motion reenactment of the "Battle of Blythe Road" using local professional wrestlers. Please look this story up.
It is amazing.
Actually, here:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/william-butler-yeats-aleister-crowley-magic-duel

If you've read this far, go read some Kropotkin. If you have time for this you have time for something more useful.

If you've read this far, thank you for watching the video, and reading my ramblings. I have an abundance of appreciation for anyone supporting arts, and your time and attention is a wonderful gift.

If you have more charity to offer, you really should check out Norilsk's latest album. You can listen to more great music, support some really wonderful people, and take a guess at what I was very subtly and cleverly alluding to through the piece. Also, follow Sarah on her socials. She is an incredible artist who is the fundamental reason my ideas worked at all within this video (you'll hear more about her later.)

Relevant, valuable, and worth giving your money to links:
https://norilskdoom.bandcamp.com/album/antipole

https://hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/the.lion.girl/

also, me, I guess:
https://www.instagram.com/dsmsblk/

ATPATP
(All the Power to All the People)