The Avalanches have taken things to the next level for their latest music video, teaming up with the International Space Orchestra for the clip to recent single “Wherever You Go”.
Released just last month, “Wherever You Go” serves as the fourth single released by the group this year, and features – in addition to collaborators Jamie xx, Neneh Cherry and CLYPSO – samples of extraterrestrial greetings taken from the Voyager Golden Record of 1977.
Keeping in theme with the universal, spacey approach many of their recent tracks and graphics have taken, The Avalanches have now unveiled the single’s official video clip, featuring contributions from the International Space Orchestra.
Described as “the world’s first orchestra of space scientists”, the ISO came to life in 2012, and is directed by SETI Institute Designer of Experiences Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian along with musical director Evan Price. Together, the ISO have played sold-out shows at numerous US venues, while performing with big-name acts such as Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn, Beck, Sigur Rós, Maywa Denki, and Savages.
The clip itself was filmed while in lockdown, and features virtual appearances from numerous members of the ISO sharing their skills in a mostly playful manner, before an end credits roll helps to share a bit more information about the players.
“We are forever grateful to Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun and the International Space Orchestra for a truly magical, inspiring and connective experience,” The Avalanches’ Robbie Chater and Tony DiBlasi explained. “During a hard lockdown, it has renewed our faith in music, humanity and the power of connection, science and love.
“We have so much respect for all those at NASA and SETI institute and the work they do pushing the boundaries of human exploration, in trying to find the answers to the universe, and who and what lay beyond our neighbourhood.”
As part of this collaboration, The Avalanches also created a musical representation of the Arecibo message, which was created in 1974 by SETI Institute co-founder Frank Drake.
“We would also like to thank Dr. Franck Marchis and Dr. Frank Drake for all their help in deciphering the Arecibo message for inclusion on our upcoming project,” the group continued. “The first time this message has been translated into music.”
“The Avalanches have been working on a space inspired album for a few years now,” Ben Hayoun-Stépanian said of the collaboration. “Researching sounds coming from space, they came across the brilliant work developed by our scientists at the SETI Institute and by the International Space Orchestra.
“Very quickly, it became apparent that our musical collaboration should focus on further inspiring new perspectives and desires to understand the universe. In the current context we could not make our performance happen in real life, but we decided to make it happen regardless and this performance is the result of our online meetups.
“We hope that our performance will allow for further curiosity and interest to research further galaxies and extraterrestrial intelligence and life. Working with the Avalanches has been our greatest honour, one of the most cosmic experiences we have encountered.”
The video clip for The Avalanches “Wherever You Go” is available now via YouTube.
