Prepare to be conflicted - and knocked sideways - by Niall Trask's remarkable video for Alabaster Deplume, where surreal black comedy meets realistic heartbreaking drama.

The video for the jazz musician, composer, poet and activist's song Invincibility is an audacious blurring of filmmaking conventions, where a powerful narrative about a sombre event involving a seriously injured dog, is subverted by the bizarre, dreamlike device of having the dog's head replaced by Alabaster Deplume's. 

He performs the song that echoes the sorrow and trauma of a mother and daughter as rush their beloved pet to the vet, and endure the inevitable end. That's sensitively but unflinchingly dramatised by Trask - while there are also flashbacks to happier times, with shots of Alabaster (aka Angus Fairbairn) as the erstwhile carefree dog. Which is both funny and also underlines the heartbreak, the onset of grief.

It's audacious storytelling - and so sad it could justify a mental health warning. Particularly for dog lovers.

"Alabaster was one of the first people I met when I moved down to London, a collaboration has been a longtime coming," says Trask. "He gave me total freedom to write on one of three tracks and I returned his trust by choosing to euthanise him to the score of Invincibility.

"On a personal level, there has been a fair share of tragedy in recent years and finding the absurdity/humour in it all, is always my go-to remedy. The treatment was ambitious and I’m grateful to everyone who helped bring this to life. Or put it to sleep should I say."