Fröst Debut Chilly Video For New Single “La Venus d’Argent” (premiere)

On their last single, “Record Still Spinning”, Fujiya and Miyagi’s Steve Lewis and French-Swedish vocalist Johanna Bramli melded hypnotic ambient pop and taut, Krautrock rhythms. Now Fröst return with a new video for their more minimalist yet equally sophisticated new single “La Venus d’Argent”.

The pair have stated that the title of the song is a nod to Serge Gainsbourg’s Melody Nelson and the French hell-raiser’s influence is clear in the way the duo create a similarly enigmatic, late-night vibe. The mixture of French lyrics and English lines such as “Dancing in the ray of light / Settling in the corner of my eyes” only add to the mystique.

The song opens with a syncopated, pre-set keyboard pattern, that provides a skeletal bed for Barmli’s cooly exhaled vocals. Her voice gently swirls around the rhythm like the moan of an icy cold wind howling through trees. Rather aptly the video sees Bramli, alone in a cold, dark forest, her face initially framed in silhouette, as her breath condenses in a swirling cloud of vapor.

Halfway through the spell is broken as the tempo quickens with the band layering a motorik synth groove and the steady crack of percussion that compels the song forward. Accompanied by the sharp, flashes of a Tangerine Dream-esque keyboard line that the song builds before retreating amongst the trees — just as Bramli does in the video.