Daniele Luppi & Greg Gonzalez

Daniele Luppi & Cigarettes After Sex’s Greg Gonzalez Share New Video For “Silent Dream”

COLLABORATIVE EP CHARM OF PLEASURE OUT NOW!

Watch The Video For “Silent Dream” at https://DanieleLuppi.lnk.to/SilentDreamMV Listen To The Charm of Pleasure EP At https://danieleluppi.lnk.to/CharmofPleasure

Following the release of their collaborative EP Charm of Pleasure last month, Los Angeles-based artist and composer Daniele Luppi and Cigarettes After Sex’s Greg Gonzalez share a new video for the EP track “Silent Dream.” The retro-futuristic visual directed by Caitlin Gerard sees actress Keva Walker in a vintage car as she longs the memories of a past relationship through romantic black and white footage.

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Daniele Luppi & Greg Gonzalez

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Speaking about the video, Luppi shares:

“Throughout the conversations I had for the video, there were a few constants I thought had to be there no matter what the final treatment was going to be: a classic 1940’s car, actor/dancer Keva Walker and some kind of a “Lynchian” twist involving vintage footage. I found this incredible-looking 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster in truly impeccable shape. Its design works as a timemachine, or at least as a strong visual twist that transports the story to ‘another’ time, though I use “time” loosely as we didn’t go for a true period piece but rather some kind of retro-futuristic surreal place where everything can happen. Keva’s facial features proved to be the balancing ingredient — they combine so many aspects of human emotion and convey a timeless feeling in such a straightforward way. The idea was to conjure a specific atmosphere through small details: the haircut, the wardrobe, the way they move and occasionally dance, the make up etc. The result is a constant push-and-pull between old and new, classic and avant-garde, traditional and innovative. The “Lynchian” aspect was approached by mixing reality with dream-like sequences, surrealism (a nod to filmmaker Luis Buñuel whose work I love) and some strong violet lighting. Specifically, the alternate reality was represented by actual vintage black&white footage taken from a variety of romantic films, which is slowly discovered in awe (and perhaps envied) by Keva’s character.”

The project is the platonic ideal of two separate artistic sensibilities melding to create something totally new. Across the 5-tracks of Charm of Pleasure, the artists fuse their compositional elegance and dream-pop sensibilities to craft music that sounds like nothing either of them has accomplished before—while also making perfect sense within their own catalogs. Charm of Pleasure includes the previously released singles “The Rose You Kept,” created with a rented ELKA Synthex and “You Never Loved,” which arrived with a self-directed visual.

While creating Charm of Pleasure, Luppi and Gonzalez drew inspiration from a variety of sources—from the futuristic decay of the classic film Blade Runner to the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright— to create thoughtful, deliberate music that nonetheless sounds like a curlicue of smoke wafting in front of your eyes: inviting, beautiful, and with a vanishing impermanence that lingers long after the needle runs off the grooves. A limited run of vinyl is available on the artist store here.

The new EP follows Luppi’s 2017 collaborative album with Parquet Courts and Karen O, Milano, which Pitchfork described as “vibrant, and full of possibility” and his 2011 collaborative project Rome with Danger Mouse along with his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gnarls Barkley, John Legend, Broken Bells, and more.

Watch “Silent Dream” and listen to Charm of Pleasure at the page to the left, find the full tracklisting below and stay tuned for more from Daniele Luppi coming soon.

Charm of Pleasure EP

Daniele Luppi and Greg Gonzalez

1. Last Drink 2. You Never Loved 3. Silent Dream 4. The Rose You Kept 5. Another Life