Earthset have today released their new video and single titled ‘Arcadia’. The Bologna quartet has spent years refusing to sit politely inside one genre box, moving between alternative rock, indie, experimental rock and post rock while developing an especially serious relationship with the cinematic. Their new video for ‘Arcadia’ feels like another chapter in that wonderfully strange mission, except this time the movie theater has opened its doors and invited the human voice inside.
‘Arcadia’ is where Earthset’s atmospheric instincts meet something considerably more ancient. The song carries that familiar Earthset ability to build a landscape rather than simply play a song in it, allowing the music to breathe, swell and shift without constantly waving a giant sign that says LOOK HOW ARTISTIC WE ARE. Thank goodness. There is an evocative quality here that feels connected to the band’s history of creating live scores for silent cinema, including work surrounding The Mechanical Man, Nosferatu, Earth and The Adventures of Prince Achmed. That cinematic background makes perfect sense because Earthset have always seemed more interested in creating a world than merely occupying a genre.
And then there is the voice, which gives ‘Arcadia’ its most human point of contact. The imagery surrounding the song is pastoral and ancient, but this is not some blissed out trip to a mythical paradise where everyone wears linen and nobody has email. Earthset understand that modern existence has made certainty increasingly difficult to locate. The song seems to inhabit that uncomfortable space where beauty and decay are already holding hands. Even the seed carries the possibility of its eventual withering, which is admittedly a rather Earthset way of looking at gardening. The video complements that atmosphere by reinforcing the feeling that we are watching something unfold rather than simply being handed another promotional clip for a rock song.
What makes ‘Arcadia’ work is that Earthset never seem particularly interested in making the obvious choice. Their earlier work has already demonstrated a fascination with originality and strange cinematic possibilities, and this new track continues that trajectory without feeling like a museum piece dedicated to their own past. There is melody here, there is weight, there is atmosphere, and there is enough ambiguity to keep the whole thing from collapsing into a tidy little explanation. ‘Arcadia’ is beautiful in the slightly unsettling way that beautiful things can be when you realize they are temporary.
Earthset have once again made a compelling argument for why alternative rock can still be weird, cinematic and genuinely adventurous without needing a permission slip from anybody.
Featured image by Moustafa Selezionate.
About ‘Arcadia’
‘Arcadia’ is the new song from Earthset, rock band based in Bologna. Constantly straddling the line between alt-rock and post-rock, the band has long complemented its songwriting with an intense dialogue with early cinema, creating various live scores and soundtracks for silent film masterpieces (such as The Mechanical Man, Nosferatu, Earth, and The Adventures of Prince Achmed).
Acting as a bridge between these two worlds, “Arcadia” is the place where the band’s evocative soundscapes meet the human voice. It is a voice that is ancient and pastoral, yet steeped in a postmodern reality where the gods are dead, certainties have been swept away, and the very sprouting of the seed already holds the omen of its eventual withering.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/Earthset
https://www.instagram.com/earthset_/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/27FihPbgJOaSdAyq9kgb9t
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCflPJZXoRcY5hGvGrXZbEeQ
https://earthset.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/27FihPbgJOaSdAyq9kgb9t
https://www.deezer.com/it/album/270196352