[youtube]http://youtu.be/4SO0qSfxqyk[/youtube]
The clip for Moby’s and Mark Lanegan’s limited edition Record Store Day 7” single “The Lonely Night” comes courtesy of Los Angeles-based cinematographer Colin Rich. Moby and Lanegan may seem an unlikely pair, but their electronica meets earthy, naked baritone works to startling effect. Rich provides the perfect complement with his stunning time-lapsed survey of the sleepy Californian landscape which traverses the Mojave Desert, the Salton Sea and the artificial illumination of L.A.
Smoky clouds wrapped around boulders, barren trees and manufactured objects including desolate, dilapidated buildings and ragtag furniture stand stoic – solitaire – against busy, shifting backdrops in which stars blow like milk across the sky, emphasizing the loneliness of these un-stirring objects and the state.
Sombre fades; vast, arid landscapes; and close foregrounding induce meditative contemplation over these iconified objects. ‘Subtlety’ is the word for this entire package: Moby’s sustained synth line shifts with tectonic gradualness over digitized percussive beats that register like distant transmissions, as faint as the stars that zip across Rich’s night skies before disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
