This Clarice Saliby video for “Emerald Eyes,” a “collaboration” between Charlatan and The North Sea (both helmed by Digitalis head Brad Rose) is like watching 2001: A Space Odyssey through a lava lamp. Everything moves a mile an hour. The only suddenness comes from the four or five cut shots moving from one frame of bubbling, galactic psychedelia to another. Balls of light shine through the dark, morphing canvas as synth washes and distant drum-like clips splatter themselves across the cavern wall ambiance that establishes the astral boundaries between which the entire audible range of sound waves folds itself into the ultraviolet spectrum. And when it all fades to black at the end, and you are sitting there staring at your own reflection in the computer screen, you realize by gazing upward toward the night sky in wonder, you are really looking inside yourself, and all that emptiness and negative space is just a part of the whole. Charlatan, I’m glad you met The North Sea. I think it could be the start of something beautiful.
Watch it unfold above, and buy the cassette from Portland’s Field Hymns.
• The North Sea: http://thenorthsea.bandcamp.com
• Field Hymns: http://www.fieldhymns.com
More about: Charlatan Meets the North Sea