Over the past handful of years, I’ve written quite a bit about the Liverpool-based shoegaze quintet and JOVM mainstays The Vryll Society, and as you may recall, the band, which is comprised of Michael Ellis, Ryan Ellis, Lewis McGuinness, Lloyd Shearer, and Benjamin Robinson have received attention from both this site and across the blogosphere with a series of singles that revealed a sound and songwriting approach that draws from a diverse array of influences, including Funkadelic, Aphrodite’s Child, krautrock and classic shoegaze.
The Liverpool-based shoegazers latest single “Andrei Rublev” is the first official single from the band’s long-awaited full-length debut, Course of the Satellite slated for an August 10, 2018 release, and interestingly enough, the song is inspired by Andre Tarkovsky’s 1996 arthouse film Andrei Rublev, a historical period piece and biographical film on the life of the 15th century Russian icon painter, during one of several incredibly turbulent periods of Russian history, which lead to the creation of the Tsardom of Russia. Thematically, the film concerned itself with several themes — artistic freedom, religion, political ambiguity and uncertainty, autodidacticism, and the creation of art under a cruel and repressive regime. And while the film’s characters lived over 400 years ago, there’s so much that should resonate with modern viewers. In any case, the understandably slow-burning and meditative song manages to nod at shoegaze and 70s AM rock in a way that brings another JOVM mainstay to mind, Chicago‘s Secret Colours, but while hinting at an urgent ache for something far bigger and permanent than oneself.
The recently released video features an alien like orb that floats in the distance that reflects and refracts the images so that they’re given a fish-eye effect, as the band walks through the British woods in a brooding fashion; throughout the song, the band’s individual members are shown with the very setting they’re walking superimposed behind them but upside down, which creates a meditative yet trippy effect.
