Gaia Alari directs a soft and ethereal hand-drawn concept for Dana Gavanski's reworking of King Crimson's I Talk The Wind.

The song - taken from Wind Songs, Gavanski's new EP of cover versions - exudes a sense of nostalgia and introspection, and the video follows suit, focusing on the minutiae of everyday life: plastic bags in the breeze, the way the light falls in different situations, nature blooming in our peripheral vision. 

The hand-drawn animation is beautifully executed and maintains a sense of DIY craftsmanship, echoing the dichotomy of reality and fiction and the whirlwind of emotions we share as humans. 

GAIA ALARI:

Dana's version inspired me to look for visuals that could bring an airy sensation but also a little psychedelic and melancholic.

“The reason why as a visual artist I specialize in this kind of analogic technique - it's just papers placed one after the other, no post production involved - is because somehow it brings me back to when I was a child and I used to draw small stories in sequence with wax pastels on paper, (or make clay characters and move them). This is why I find in this rather time-consuming frame by frame process, the warmth I look for that comes from this personal feeling of belonging.

"I knew the song before but Dana's version made me reconnect to the lyrics on a deeper level. This inspired me to look for visuals that could bring an airy sensation but also a little psychedelic and melancholic. So I picked a few elements (plastic bag, curtains, Dana, birds, hands) and took them on a circular journey, picturing the movement of a whirlwind.

"There is a surreal element to the lyrics that I visually developed through the use of nature and blooming flowers as a representation of the outside/inside, here/there, tidy/chaos. Aesthetically, I wanted the video to have a '70s vibe, that shows basically through the use of dissolves, the frame angles and the choice of a pastel pink as the colour to accompany the black and white palette.”