Week in Pop: Blue of Noon, Cotillon, Gosh!, Sidewalk Chalk

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Blue of Noon

Ontario’s own elusive Blue of Noon; photograph appears courtesy of Black Lake.

Introducing Hamilton, Ontario’s Blue of Noon who have been making a barage of dreamy & hypnagaugic sounds that have been gaining the interest from their sounding world. Presenting the world premiere of their “Nightmare” music video from Cameron Veitch & Robert J. Kemp for Black Lake; watch & listen as the sounds are met with corresponding vintage VHS visuals that break through the static with a host of ethereal qualities. The group taps into the most understated & reserved of tonal qualities that speak to those special & sacred sectors of the unconscious that house the fabrics of memories that are triggered via the most psychic of audio/visual tones & textures.
Blue of Noon’s “Nightmare” video from Black Lake is executed like a vintage ethereal pop visual ripped from the original era of artists whose ethereal sounds were coupled with a passion for gazing at their trainers. Cameron & Robert’s video translation for “Nightmare” casts silhouette forms of the group performing in front of infinitude of mirrored images that makes for a feeling of the eternal, ongoing & infinite in nature. All sorts of escapist impulses & instincts are entertained as the sight of a figure running in delayed & slowed motion is the centerpiece of “Nightmare” that makes a go for it in what can only be described as a low-anxiety night terror (or malevolent daydream). Despite the alliterated song title, Blue of Noon’s “Nightmare” is a dream odyssey of romance met with adversarial oppositions along with celestial rhythms that will make your morning jog a transcendental sprint between different worlds.

Blue of Noon – Nightmare from Black Lake on Vimeo.
Blue of Noon shared with us the following poetic piece that reflects on the nature of their music video for “Nightmare”:

Are you there? Or am I on my own?
Is it her that awaits me or I that await her? With Beauty on one knee,
and the Devil on the other
I asked them: Who chases and who runs?
But silence fell between them.
Finally, the Devil replied:
We are never alone,
prisoners, we sink so deep we drown
and eventually,
we disappear.

She looked at me and I smiled back.
Have faith in me, lover
for we are surely out of this world.
“I think I am in hell, therefore I am in hell” Sleepwalker, you shall awake someday…
This is our “Nightmare”.

Black Lake described their own approach to making the video for Blue of Noon’s “Nightmare”:

Blue of Noon were kind enough to give us creative freedom for their video for Nightmare. We knew up front that we wanted to have 2 separate components to the video, part performance and part narrative. But we wanted to combine the two, not just simple cuts between. The footage of the main character running was a simple idea that we felt could be a visual interpretation of a nightmare—the idea of not being able to get away. The character was inspired by Jacob’s Ladder.
We shot the infinite-loop effect of the performance in real time with Blue of Noon, in front of a projector with their silhouettes being played back on the screen. In post production, we overlayed the footage of the performance with the story element over top. We overlayed multiple video layers where we felt it worked. The edit was certainly a challenge for playback purposes – considering the file sizes and since each sequence had about 6 or 7 video layers overlayed.
Overall it was fantastic to work with a band where we genuinely love their music, couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity.

Listen to more from Blue of Noon via Bandcamp.