The Perfect Visuals with Belau

It isn't always easy for an artist to pair themselves with a film director who can interpret their art in an exciting way that makes both the film and soundtrack inseparable, but sometimes an artist can strike gold. This is one of those moments.

Hungarian duo Belau, compromised of talented instrumentalists Péter Kedves and Krisztián Buzás, released their second album 'Colourwave' in May this year. Seeing the three live action videos directed by Péter P. Szabó make me wish there was an entire visual journey to accompany the music Belau have created here. Most of the tracks on Colourwave have a featured vocalist, giving each track its own unique sound. The first of these to be released was 'Essence'.

The opening track to Belau's album, Essence features British singer Sophie Barker on vocals. Her other work includes collaborating with Zero 7 and Sia on their song 'Destiny', as well as featuring on Sia's 'Colour The Small One' album and work with Groove Armada. Essence begins with the sound of heavily reverberated guitar, the drums cut through with the sizzle of hi-hat panned to one side. Barker's vocal is breathy and produced to sound like a group of vocalists rather than just the one. This is particularly true of the song's chorus, 'Release me, reveal me, raise me up against the wind. Receive me, beneath me, while we keep on up the flow!' The music's solidity in the chorus is full of synths, for an album opener, it doesn't force the listener to retreat.

The video itself opens with a drone shot across open sea, but with the unique perspective of running on the sky looking up at the water. This short film features actresses Christine Andersson, Emese Kárász and Szilvi Murányi in separate locations, like we are watching three different stories playing out at once. Each is dressed impeccably, the frame circles in the centre and the occasional glimpse of vintage film is cut in. The only thing shared by the characters is a brown bottle of unknown liquid they each drink - the effect is each character multiplying on the screen. Is this the Essence?

The video to 'An Ocean With No Waves' was released in March with yasaquarius (also from the U.K.) as featured vocalist. As a solo artist, yasaquarius released three singles in 2019 entitled 'Big Dreams Die Hard', 'Pillow Thoughts', and 'U Only'. The very tip of the introduction to An Ocean With No Waves reminds me of something Lana Del Rey would employ. Digital percussion here brings more of a chill vibe, even when the beat kicks in, it's like a late summer evening wrapped up in a song. Again, there is some guitar, but it isn't over-baked in tone or effects. I like how Belau don't stray entirely in the water of digital sound.

With an early shot of one of the video's actresses, a quote appears across the screen, 'our parallels only meet in the never ending spiral of human recollection.' From staring out of the window, this character walks across the room which is revealed to be an open-plan photographic studio. Upon picking up a photo-album, the video shows off my favourite shots. The double exposure look has the characters overlaid with several locations featured in the photographs. The ensemble of Adriana Pedersen, Paul Bourgine, Szilvia Murányi and Andreas Heuer play out the connections between these characters in the photo-album.

Originally I had intended to just write about Belau's latest single, 'Risk It All', but honestly I couldn't help myself with all this great content. British singer/songwriter Amahla is the vocalist for Risk It All, whose debut EP 'Consider This' was released in early 2019. Her song 'Bold' recently featured on Fearne Cotton's 'Happy Place' album alongside Ludovico Einaudi, Billie Marten, Emeli Sandé and Sam Fender.

The thudding bass drum has the sound of a big empty room. Amahla's voice is full of soul, built up in layers. Pad keyboards provide a constant bridge between the vocals and the more active drum and percussion sounds. How often do you hear the scrape of a gyro these days? A touch of grime in the warping bass pulse, but nothing too heavy - the effect is fleeting. This track finishes as it began with the drums bringing it to a close.

Risk It All is my favourite of Péter P. Szabó's videos for Belau. It begins with a beautiful snow-covered landscape - I enjoy the synchronised suiting up of Per Ludvik Brattås with the music. Szilvi Murányi is also back for this video, having featured in all three releases. Our male lead is a traveller in space and time, the open walkways by the sea are mesmerising to look at with blocks of colour and a maze of straight lines. A perfect location for this music video. I'm eager to see what this collaboration between music and film producers can concoct next.

1. 'Risk It All' is your latest single from your 'Colourwave' album, what does this song mean to you?

“Risk It All” is a song of the possibility. One of our favourite tracks from the new album. Before the release in February we shot a video for it around some breathtaking European sights. In April of 2021 we would like to release the Deluxe version of Colourwave with some remixes, live sessions, reimagined versions, and a new song. The first tune from it is the night version of Risk It All, which is more mystic, minimal, and darker than the original.

2. With the collaborations on your 'Colourwave' album, were the instrumentals finished to be sent to the vocalists to write lyrics for, or did you pen the lyrics yourselves?

Both. Sometimes we wrote the lyrics sometimes the featured lovely vocalists.

3. How did you decide you wanted to work with Amahla on this track?

We find Amahla on the internet and really like her voice, after it we wrote her and started to work. We met her in London after our last year's concert in O2 Islington.

4. The music video to 'Risk It All' is a thing of beauty. What are the locations where it was shot?

There were 2 locations: Calp in Spain and some Austrian mountains.

5. Your album was helped into existence by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary, would you tell us more about how that happened?

We’re big vinyl fans and wanted to have this album on vinyl. We get some support for the physical version.

6. Krisztián, what's been your favourite moment in making the 'Colourwave' album?

It was a long trip for us, hard to pick just one moment.

7. Going back to basics - where does the name Belau come from?

That is an old story that comes from our young ages. When we were kids we were really into geography and know all the capitals of the countries around the world by heart. We discovered Palau’s island which is a small country on the Pacific Ocean and somehow the name and the culture there remained an inspiration throughout the years. The inhabitants call Palau a different name: it’s Belau. Someday we gonna play there, I am sure about that.

8. Péter, would you say you and Krisztián had specific roles in Belau? Or do you both share instrumental and writing responsibilities equally?

We decide things together, but definitely have our own roles also in live version. Krisztián mainly wrote lyrics, I primarily focusing on music side.

9. The deluxe version of 'Colourwave' is due out next year, is there anything more you can tell us about what it might feature?

There will be some remixes, night versions, live versions of the songs and a brand new one, really looking forward to show it to everybody.

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