Two of our favorite movies of the year so far are Alex Garland‘s "Ex Machina" and Peter Strickland‘s "The Duke Of Burgundy," and both directors have taken a bit of time between their next features to dip their toes into the music video world for the first time.
For <Kaeb —Portishead instrumentalist Geoff Barrow‘s "alter ego" spinoff band from his side project Beak> —Garland co-directed "When We Fall" with "Ex Machina" director of photography Rob Hardy, which explains the video’s gritty aesthetic. "If the band records something which feels too comfortable with itself, they reject it. Rob Hardy, Sonoya Mizuno, Erline O’Donovan and I tried to make the video for ‘When We Fall’ on their aesthetic terms: shot one afternoon on an iPhone, held up to the viewfinder of an old Nikon SLR, then cut as instinctively as possible," he told Pitchfork.
READ MORE: Review: Alex Garland’s Gripping, Brilliant and Sensational ‘Ex Machina’
Meanwhile, Strickland delivers an equally evocative video for Flying Saucer Attack‘s "Instrumental 7." The experimental band contributed to the ‘Burgundy’ soundtrack, and the director is returning the favor with this promo. “My first ever music video for a band that I’m very glad to see the return of," he said in a statement. "Within the Great Plains of Hungary, one can almost hear this music resonating far away in the endless expanse. Three of us in the flatfield for three days with Flying Saucer Attack on our headphones and trying to remember how to use light meters whilst observing a world that mankind is gradually departing from.“
The Beak>/<Kaeb split EP arrives in July. Flying Saucer Attack’s Instrumentals 2015 will hit stores on July 17th. Watch below.