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Premiere: Cemento Atlantico’s “Trung Sisters”

Cemento Atlantico‘s Rotte Interotte has been one of my favorite releases of the year so far. The album is an enthusiastic love letter to globetrotting: a unique electronic album composed of an amalgam of sounds from far-flung corners of the world that meet in unusual ways. I’m honored to host the American premiere of the video for “Trung Sisters,” a neat cut from the record.

The video for “Trung Sisters” is a study on packing a lot of meaning into a minimalist concept. (I’m becoming fond of these types of videos!) The song itself is a walking-speed electro cut that uses a recording of an improvised lute session in Hanoi as the lead melody. The lute is undergirded by patient yet subtly insistent beats that keep the piece going forward.

The video plays into the tensions of slow and fast, contrasting images against each other at length. The first concept places a solid floral textile in the mid-ground, with hands from a dancer in the foreground and a full shot of an elegant dancer in the background. The layering of static and moving images produces a tension that reflects that of the song.

The second concept, which starts at 1:15 and continues for the rest of the piece, manipulates the image of a slow-motion dancer (with head covered) in a variety of ways. The image gaps, stutters, morphs, doubles, has a second dancer image superimposed on the original, even is subsumed in an image of raging fire. Given the story of the Trưng sisters, there are many layers of symbolism, context, and commentary here. It is a video that honors thought and consideration over repeated watchings. It’s a great piece.

Cemento Atlantico‘s Rotte Interotte is out now.