Watch the Wildfire-Damaged Video for Julia Holter’s “Whether”

Julia Holter has shared the video for “Whether” off her latest album Aviary, out now on Domino.

The video was directed by Dicky Bahto, who directed the previous two videos off the album, “Words I Heard” and “I Shall Love 2.” Bahto’s experiments in film and visual abstraction continue here, the chaos in his film burns and deep cerulean shades finding their mirror in Holter’s churning hurdy-gurdy.

Bahto explained the meaning behind the film manipulations in a statement, saying that the video arose from deciding to “indulge in my love of hand-worked darkroom techniques.” He said he would expose 16mm film prepared with cyanotype solution to the light of the sun on his balcony every afternoon over a couple of weeks, slowly building up the frames that would become the video.

“As the fires in Southern California darkened the sky with smoke, my exposures took increasingly long amounts of time to get images ever more faint,” he recalled. “Julia wanted me to share this anecdote, since it fits the dystopian theme of the song, which is about the world collapsing around us because of climate change.”

Watch the video for “Whether” and check out Holter’s 2012 Daytrotter Session below. She will be touring behind Aviary through next year—find a full list of dates further down.

Julia Holter Tour Dates:

November
26 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso Noord
27 – Bochum, Germany @ Schauspiel
28 – Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma
30 – Berlin, Germany @ Funkhaus

December
01 – Hamburg, Germany @ Elbphilharmonie
02 – Frankfurt , Germany @ Brotfabrik
03 – Munch, Germany @ Kammerspiele
04 – Paris, France @ Petit Bain
06 – Manchseter, U.K. @ Gorilla
07 – Bristol, U.K. @ Fiddlers
08 – Dublin, Ireland @ Button Factory,
10 – Edinburgh, U.K. @ Summerhall,
11 – Leeds, U.K. @ Howard Assembly Rooms
12 – London, U.K. @ Hackney Arts Centre

January
18 – Tasmania, New Zealand @ Mona Foma Festival

February
19 – Washington, D.C. @ U Street Music Hall
20 – Philadelphia , Pa. @ Underground Arts
22 – New York, N.Y. @ Warsaw
23 – Boston, Mass. @ Brighton Music Hall
24 – Montreal, Que. @ La Sala Rossa
26 – Toronto, Ont. @ The Great Hall
27 – Detroit, Mich. @ El Club
28 – Chicago, Ill. @ Thalia Hall

March
01 – St. Paul, Minn. @ Turf Club
04 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Imperial
05 – Portland, Ore. @ Doug Fir
06 – Seattle, Wash. @ Neumos
08 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Great American Music Hall
09 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Lodge Room