Milan motion designer Gabriele Calvi summons a constantly shifting graphic dream for the Danish rock trio Town Portal in his enigmatic new music video for the track “Vanitas”.

Gabriele Calvi: “The official music video for Town Portal’s Vanitas is a free interpretation of a common sleep cycle with the aim of visually representing the dark and eerie sounds of the song.

“Hence the choice of the subject of sleep which, conceived as the most death-like everyday experience, allowed me to trace the obscure and nocturnal atmosphere of the track, without sticking too much to the usual imagery associated with heavy music.

“Anatomical representations, abstract settings, folkloristic figures, nightmares, and still lifes (vanitas) follow one another unceasingly to emphasize the complex structure of the song by creating continuous rhythmic-visual correspondences.

“A journey where the protagonist and his consciousness (the red sphere) go through the five phases of sleep, from falling asleep to the catharsis of the REM phase, interrupted by an experience of sleep paralysis and followed by a turbulent awakening that brings the protagonist back to reality, in the dawn of a generic city.”
 

Artist: Town Portal
Director/animator: Gabriele Calvi