Photo by Dagmar SieglindePortland, Oregon trio WL’s new album Light Years, out October 28 on XRAY, was originally composed as an acoompaniment to the French surrealist animation Gandahar by Rene Laloux. It makes sense. The grand, two-dimensional landscapes of Laloux’s film would have fit the swelling guitars; the pastel shots and flashes of color would have lined up with Misty Mary’s breathy, occasionally angst-ridden vocals.The band’s new video for “Crossing,” premiering on Noisey today, managed to capture the same atmosphere from a completely different angle. Shot on the #16 TriMet bus in Portland at 6am, it shows Mary staring back at a camera while passengers push through their commute. It’s odd, a little creepy in its straightforward approach, like a stranger holding your eye for too long. It’s the perfect accompaniment to the track.In an email to Noisey, director Chris Cantino explained the process behind the video: “We hid the large ARRI SR3 film camera body inside a bag and cut a hole out for the lens to peek through. It was captured in one long take on a six-minute roll of film and none of the passengers were informed, with Misty hiding an earbud inside her hair. I remember the driver asked what we were doing and I replied that we were in town for a wedding and just killing time. The timing of the final cadence in which the passengers shuffle about and Misty steps off the bus was completely unplanned, and we ran out of film immediately after the take was complete. Magical stuff.”Check out the video below.Follow Noisey on Twitter.
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