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The Gift reveal jaw-dropping video for 'You Will Be Queen' - premiere

Portuguese band released their album 'Altar' earlier this year

Roisin O'Connor
Music Correspondent
Thursday 07 December 2017 15:02 GMT
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Portuguese band The Gift have unveiled the video for their song "You Will Be Queen" and you can watch it first via The Independent.

"You Will Be Queen" is taken from their latest album Altar, which was produced by Brian Eno and mixed by Flood.

The video saw an international partnership with photographer Niv Novak, who explores the intersection between dark and light, and stars Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo: principal dancers of the Australian Ballet.

Watch the visuals for "You Will Be Queen" (above)

The track describes the interaction between a couple who hear the same song, at the same time, but are physically far apart from one another.

This is perfectly encapsulated in visual form by Novak's latest project 'Extension' - which aims to show the decisive movement of the extension in dance like never before - as an elongated instant in time. The use of ultra slow motion shows the dancers in all their physical skill and grace - in high-definition imagery.

Novak said: "I'm very excited about this collaboration with The Gift. The soft voices and sweeping melody of 'You Will Be Queen' are so gracefully combined with the dance moves and concept of 'Extension'."

Composer, keyboardist and backing vocalist Nuno Gonçalves told The Independent: "In 2017 it makes sense to have these kinds of artistic partnerships. A music video as long ceased to be a tool for selling albums or singles, nowadays a video serves mainly to be an aesthetic extension of an image, a reference and a way of doing things. We thought that Nik Novak had the perfect images for the song 'You Will Be Queen'.

"I think a record like Altar needed a partnership like this one. Surfing the internet I was fortunate enough, just a few hours after Niv Novak posted the first image, to find his work. The next day I contacted him and sent him the song. He loved it and we were able to move forward with this partnership."

The Gift play Union Chapel in London on 24 February 2018 - tickets are on sale. Their latest album Altar is out now.

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