VELATINE: Life and death – the story of a song
“Orange to Black” began to develop in the fall of 2022. The words “Life to Death” came to the mind of Velatine mastermind Loki Lockwood. But he initially hesitated to take this path. “I tried to think of brighter things like the sun, but it dies every day. Flowers in orange and black, they can’t live forever either. Almost a year later, I celebrated a milestone birthday in Paris. But the death of Jane Birkin got in the way. I read about her life, that her relationship with Serge Gainsbourg went far beyond the time they were lovers, but I was stuck on the question of whether they met again in the afterlife. The night at the Gainsbourg house, the beauty of the Montmartre cemetery. I tried to steer the song towards the time when they were lovers, but it broke down, leaving only the images of the funeral intact.” The song just wasn’t ready. Loki continues, “As 2023 draws to a close, the sudden passing of a close friend shakes many musicians in Melbourne, and death takes center stage again. As all these events collide, it is the unwritten song that calls out to be completed. Finally, I allowed the song to be what it always wanted to be. With no evidence of an afterlife, I have resigned myself to never seeing my friend again, but I am honored to be one of the guardians of his memory.”
Loki Lokwood and Nocturna have shot their first video clip together. Watch the video for “Orange to Black” here:
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