Last we heard from Bristol producer Vessel was back in June, when it was announced that he and Rakhi Singh had created a new label, Paplu. At the time they released a re-worked version of Vessel’s “Red Sex”, but now comes news of the first all-new release for the label: a new EP called Passion, which will be released next Wednesday, November 18, and all proceeds from it will go to Mind, the mental health charity. Speaking about the EP, Vessel says:
“I read ‘The Passion According to G.H’. by Clarice Lispector, around the time I was making the piece. The mundane, mystical, cryptically repetitive language of this book felt like familiar territory to me. A description of an unwell mind that, whether or not it’s a good idea, is prodding around in a wound in the hope of feeling something transcendental, or more realistically, just feeling less bad.
“I wanted to use some of these words in this music. For me they are abstract enough to avoid laying out a concrete narrative, but, in themselves, are concentrated units; islands of intimacy, pain, fear, anguish, joy and love that the sound could wash over. I tried to imbue it with as much of the thin, watery light that I often experience when in the ill mind. I tried to honour my experience of depression as something nuanced and surprising, rather than a superficially dark or relentlessly hopeless depiction of the mind turning on itself. I hope that something of this comes across.
“Given the nature of the piece and what it draws from, it felt right to offer something back to people that are there for others when things turn bad. Mind have helped me a lot in the past. We live in difficult times, and services like theirs need support.”
Vessel’s Passion unfolds in three tracks – or three “movements” – and today we have the eight minute final segment “Movement III (if the telephone rings i’ll be saved)”. It comes along with a stunning short film accompaniment by Pedro Maia, who says:
“The film follows the path of a new life-form, a pilgrim on its journey to be free from the darkness. My vision was to translate Vessel’s composition into a visual journey between light and shadow, exploring the space between joy and pain, stability and instability and the idea of constant transformation. Is dissolution the way to redemption?”
Watch “Movement III (if the telephone rings i’ll be saved)” and see if you can answer the question the director poses – that’s if you’re not too mesmerised by the visual and musical prowess on display.
Vessel’s Passion EP arrives next Wednesday, November 18, and all proceeds go to Mind (pre-order from Bandcamp).
