from brooklynvegan.com

Mary Epworth will release her new album, Elytral, on September 1 via Sunday Best. For this one she headed Los Angeles to collaborate with producer Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Au Revoir Simone). The first single, “Me Swimming,” finds Epworth in darker waters, blippier, proggier and more unique than anything on her 2012 debut album. We’ve got the premiere of its video, directed by Ben Sommers and starring British actor Robert Lloyd Parry, who is known for portraying writer M. R. James, the master of the English ghost story, in one man shows. Says Mary:

For a song that is and isn’t about me swimming, I set myself the challenge of making a video that definitely didn’t feature me swimming! I focused on the insistent rhythmic nature of the track, and that set me off on a path that led somewhere rather unexpected . . .

I never expected the video to take on quite such an epic scale, and I love how filmic and widescreen the final cut is. Ben Sommers really knows how to frame a scene, and what we’ve ended up with really feels like a mini-movie.

Initially I imagined myself in the lead role, but once I had the idea of Robert Lloyd Parry taking that part, I couldn’t stop picturing it. This video features so many of my favourite things – beasts, landscape, Robert Lloyd Parry’s impeccable acting, and blackly comic pastoral horror.

Adds director Ben Sommers, “We began developing this video back in January and I feel so lucky to have worked on it, watching the ideas develop through to what you see here in the final edit. Nothing in my working history comes close to the pure joy (and the fear!) of spending a day with Robert Lloyd Parry – the man is a genius!” Watch the video below.

You can preorder Elytral now. Artwork and tracklist are below.

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Starring Robert Lloyd Parry and Mary Epworth
Concept by Mary Epworth
Directed, filmed and edited by Ben Sommers – Smoke No Pony www.smokenopony.biz
Produced by Mary Epworth, Michelle Hilborne and Ben Sommers
Choreography by Scott Simpson of Makin’ Steps Performing Arts
Dancers from Makin’ Steps Performing Arts School, Harlow, Essex
Peacock Spider footage by Michael DoeSpecial thanks to Luisa Ridge and Sunday Best, Oodles the dog, and the following shops in St. Ives, Cambridgeshire – Local Cafe, West End DIY and Hyperion Auctions.

Dancers: Marni Claridge, Tia Eke, Abbie Middleton Evans, Maddison Sarkies, Mackenzie Sarkies,
Bayley Summerfield, Kaila Teahan, Isabel Thornett, Brooke Turnstill

To discover more about Robert Lloyd Parry & join his mailing list:
www.nunkie.co.uk