Willliam Williamson has directed a mesmerizing one-take video, capturing a marvellous quartet of dance talent for Philip Selway.

The video for Check For Signs Of Life, the first release from Strange Dance, the forthcoming solo album from Selway - best known as the drummer for Radiohead - features four renowned and award-winning dancers and choreographers: Siobhan Davies, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp, Simone Damberg Würtz and Liam Francis.

Produced by Uncommon Creative Studio, with black and white cinematography by Adric Watson, the idea behind the video came from the artist, who has envisaged a series of dance videos to accompany several tracks from the new album. Selway wanted this piece to explore imagined conversations between future and past selves, and to be based around this particular quartet of dancers.

In the video, the camera takes the role of a fifth dancer with Steadicam operator Jake Whitehouse executing that highly demanding role. As William Williamson explains, it was an approach that emerged out of rehearsals with the dancers. 

“Working closely alongside Philip and choreographers Simone and Liam we set out to explore the complex relationship between future and former self through the medium of contemporary dance," he says. "Transcending time and moving through varied emotions, we wanted to create a film that will inspire the audience to hang their own narrative on.

"As we rehearsed, the intimacy and fragility of the choreography became so clear I decided to shoot it all in a single take. It meant pulling together the dance, camera and lighting, to communicate a sense of unity and power, which stays focused in the moment.”