Video Of The Week #40: Hannah Peel - Sunrise Through The Dusty Nebula

Video Of The Week #40: Hannah Peel – Sunrise Through The Dusty Nebula

The Northern Irish artist and electronic composer Hannah Peel‘s third album Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia, released 8th September via My Own Pleasure. A seven-movement odyssey composed for analogue synthesisers and full, traditional 29-piece colliery brass band it explores one person’s journey to outer space, by recounting the story of an unknown, elderly, pioneering, electronic musical stargazer and her lifelong dream to leave her terraced home in the mining town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to see Cassiopeia for herself.

We have the premiere of the video for the lead track – ‘Sunrise Through The Dusty Nebula’ watch it below, an epically mournful opus, that intricately weaves brass with electronic and classical textures to craft astoundingly moving cinematic epiphanies. There are comparisons to be made with the haunting contemporary classical of the likes of Nils Frahm and Anna Meredith but this is daubed in a vast widescreen scale and appreciation of sound, that makes it at once guiding and grand otherworlds both internal and beyond our comprehension.

The astounding visual accompaniment helps you tumble further down the wormhole into another solar system. Created by Daniel Conway is a visual artist hailing, originally, from the world of illustration and silkscreen printing. Artists he has worked with include Eric Prydz, Sub Focus, Pendulum, Wrangler and Tunng.

His video technique follows a very similar path to that of the 4 colour print process, initially producing at least three separate layers for each track and setting up audio reactions from a live feed from the FOH sound desk. Video in the place of ink, RGB instead of CMYK. Daniel on working with Hannah on her Mary Casio project:

“I visited Hannah at her studio as she wanted to play me the MC album in its entirety. That was a stunning, emotional and exhilarating experience. We talked further on the abstraction of space travel, coming upon the motif of splitting light into its integral spectrum and using these elements to explore the narrative of each track. a dreamlike version of our universe both outer space and innerspace, visions on the very edge of what is visible, momentarily veering into mirages on the far reaches of the mind.”

Live shows for Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia

29th July – WOMAD Festival
5th August – Edinburgh Festival
23rd Sept – Liverpool Philharmonic Concert Hall, Liverpool 
30th Sept – The Arc, Stockton
21st Oct – The Civic Theatre, Barnsley 
28th Oct – The Anvil Concert Hall, Basingstoke

  1. I really don’t want to spend time on sludge / doom websites. I really don’t want to spend time looking at noise-rock websites. I want to spend time on websites where a variety of musical styles are covered, where minds are fairly open. Thank you for providing that.

    But seriously, on a scale of 0 to infinity, when I read the following words my desire to check the band / artist out is less than zero –

    “A seven-movement odyssey composed for analogue synthesisers and full, traditional 29-piece colliery brass band”

    ““Radio playing nothing new” bemoans The Americans‘ frontman Patrick Ferris on opening track ‘Nevada‘, which is a bit rich for a song that sounds rather like Bruce Springsteen fronting Mumford And Sons.” [To be fair the cover photo at the top of the page meant I was not going to check this out even before reading the first sentence.]

    “Firstly, it has to be said that if you don’t like jazz, then Journey to the Mountain of Forever is unlikely to convert you. In fact, it’s more likely to reinforce your dislike for the genre. It’s long. It has dreadful Roger Dean cover art. It has lengthy drum solos and atonal saxophone squawks.”

    I thank you for reviews that tell me in no uncertain terms not to check the music out, and do so in the first few words of the review, explicitly and leaving no room for doubt. How about covering some better music?

    1. Wild Eye, when aardvarks whistle, is it really practical to salivate before dusk breathes its last?

      1. When Aardvarks Whistle are an all-male, off-kilter, indie-rock four piece from a small artsy college town in Oregon. Practical To Salivate (math)-rock hard to audiences of four in their home town of Southampton. All their tracks are heavy and use seriosuly odd time-signatures that they invented. Dusk Breathes Its Last are one of the top five 90s revival emo bands currently oprating in the Gateshead (and surrounds) area. Why did you create such an odd sentence featuring these bands names?

          1. Dusk Breathes Its Last would be an ethereal post-Cocteau Twins/Dead Can Dance duo signed to Beggars Banquet surely.

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God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases.