This week's Tune Of The Week is Flagbearer by songwriter, multi instrumentalist and producer Gavin Murray, AKA Trick Mist - watch the video above.
For Flagbearer, a song centered around the experience of his grandmother's wake and the traditional rituals around Irish death, Murray teamed up with director Bob Gallagher and photographer Vala Kjarval, great granddaughter of famed Icelandic painter Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval, to create a documentary-style music video tracing Vala's journey through the beautiful landscape of Iceland, where Jóhannes painted.
"Bob approached me to be the subject of the music video in late 2021," says Vala Kjarval of the video. "I think he was struck by how heavily my great grandfather, despite being long gone, loomed over me. He documented my journey to resolve these conflicted feelings. An expedition to the places where my great
grandfather's work hangs and locations he had once painted".
"This has been a vulnerable but rewarding endeavor - not dissimilar to someone being cured of a phobia of snakes by plunging into a tank of them. I began to demystify the locations that were once under his gaze by starting to view them through my own lens. Ultimately, the project has allowed me to develop my own relationship with Iceland - one that I continue to explore through my work as a photographer."
The film is the second installment of a music video and podcast series called Tracing Places (funded by the Arts Council of Ireland) that involves 4 artists making 4 videos for 4 new songs, and an adjoining 4 part podcast series hosted by Trick Mist - find out more about the project here.
