PJ Harvey has shared a video for the "The Wheel," the lead single from her forthcoming album, The Hope Six Demolition Project. The Seamus Murphy-directed clip features footage the collaborators shot in Kosovo between 2011 and 2015 in the midst of the European refugee crisis. Watch it below.
Murphy's clips of documentary footage that are compiled in the new video bring the bluesy, growling song to life and set its story miles away from the London studio in which the track was recorded. As i-D points out, the visuals capture some Kosovo-specific traditions: for example, scenes depict the village of Brezne celebrating a wedding with a water glass dance.
At the same time, other visuals correspond directly to Harvey's lyrics, including the song's central imagery of a rusty wheel.
As Noisey reports, Murphy explains in a director's statement: "The sight of a revolving fairground wheel in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje near the capital Pristina is the concrete reference point for the title. I can tell you its date-4th August 2011-from the piece of footage I made as we walked up the street to our parked car near the train station. It was a passing observation of a commonplace image, one of many that day."
Murphy adds: "Making the film for 'The Wheel' involved a mix of footage from the first trip in 2011, rehearsals I shot of Polly in London and the most recent trip to Kosovo. The enormous refugee crisis in Europe had been news for months. I spent some time on the Greek and Macedonian borders, and in Serbia, before traveling into Kosovo. It was happening in and through territories associated with recent conflicts in Kosovo and the wider Balkans. The idea of cycles, wheels and repetition once again being all too apparent and necessary to make."
The Hope Six Demolition Project is due out April 15th. Harvey will then hit the road just in time for festival season in support of the album with her new nine-piece band. Check out those dates below:
06/04: Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
06/04-05: Paris, FR @ We Love Green Festival
06/12: London, UK @ Field Day
06/17-18: Helsinki, FI @ Sideways Festival
06/20: Berlin, DE @ Zitadelle Spandau
06/22: Zagreb, HR @ INMusic
06/24-26: Beuningen, NL @ Down The Rabbit Hole
06/29: Gdynia, PL @ Open'er Festival
06/29-07/02: Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
07/02: Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
07/03: Herouville St Clair, FR @ Beauregard Festival
07/07: Trenčín, SK @ Pohoda Festival
08/11: Oslo, NO @ OYA
08/11-13: Gothenburg, SE @ Way Out West
