A little while ago, we treated you to another Isaac Gracie heart-stopper ‘Reverie’, which we praised for the “total possession over the introverted lyrics, lullaby instrumentation and centralisation of guitar strings,” with a grander production under the guidance of Arcade Fire collaborator Markus Dravs. Now, we have a music video directed by Clara Aranovich. We’re dropped into the ordinary scene of a British primary school playground, but it’s not long before a supernatural event takes place as several young girls drop to the ground, becoming motionless and seemingly emotionless also. This fear of sudden disappearance, whether body or mind, is something that pervades TV, film, literature and music. For example, the theme of physical and mental disappearance features in the music video for Yumi Zouma’s ‘Catastrophe’, American TV series The Leftovers and Haruki Murakami’s novel Kafka On The Shore. The video for Isaac Gracie’s ‘Reverie’ features both. This loss becomes painfully real through Gracie’s melancholic tones over the slowly unravelled sonic landscape, as well as Aranovich’s unflinching visual direction. Through their combined talents, what begins as an otherworldly crisis develops into an epic journey of first love, centred around a young boy desperate to stay connected to his sweetheart, overcoming the obvious obstacles although unable to prevent the inevitable end. ‘Reverie’ echoes many human anxieties around endings, whether that be the end of relationships, of youth, of life itself. It’s a wonderfully meditative piece of music that reveals itself further with each listen. - HT