Tour Solomon's Temple in Young Magic's New 3D Musical Environment [Premiere]

Watching the music video for experimental soul duo Young Magic's "Valhalla (Reprise)" feels like stepping into a turbulent psychedelic acid poster, one of those tie-dye graphics you’re supposed to look at when ingesting foreign ideas. Visionary digital artist and musician Vinyl Williams, the creative mind behind Rioux’s 3D musical environment and The Quincey’s playable music video, to name a few, takes us on a tour through yet another warmly-hued virtual dreamland. This time it echoes a cyberdelic Ancient Israel, surrounded by palm trees and ethereal structures, encapsulated in what looks like bubble wrap floating in space.

Williams’ visual frame is bent and twisted in this perpetuating glitch, a haunting deformation that perfectly complements the deep and ominous vocals of Young Magic singer Melati Malay. The walls of this virtual environment, along with the frame of the video, wax and wane in time with the music, giving this viewer a pressured sense of claustrophobia.

Williams says his celestial world is his impression of King Solomon’s temple—if ancient Jerusalem was a female-ruled society. As the myth goes, King David, Solomon’s father, wanted to build the temple as a resting place for the Ark of the Covenant, a wooden chest with a golden lid containing the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Alas, God ordered him not to, so when Solomon came to power he decided to carry out his father’s plan and erect the temple. Echoing The Da Vinci Code's Dan Brown, Williams tells The Creators Project, “I replaced the Ark inside the temple with Joan of Arc, the young French heroine who received visions from Archangel Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret to recuperate France from British rule.”

Singer Melati Malay says that, when it came to a visual treatment for the song, “Vinyl Willams’ interactive environments were the first to come to mind.” She tells The Creators Project, “For me, this album was a process of sifting through my family’s history to better understand the present, so naturally, it felt at home within the seeking, mirrored halls of [Williams'] Valhalla."

Video by Vinyl Williams, 3D Models taken from Archive 3D, 123D Catch, Sketchup Warehouse, TF3DM, Thingiverse

"Valhalla (Reprise)” is the final song on Young Magic’s upcoming album, Still Life, set to release on May 13th via Carpark Records.

Check out more works by Vinyl Williams on his website, here, and listen to some of Young Magic’s tunes on their website.

Young Magic is also pleased to announce that they will embark on a cross-country tour with Yeasayer this May-June. Full dates below.

And catch Young Magic on tour with Yeasayer in a city near you:

5/12 Port City Music Hall - Portland, ME

5/13 Paradise Rock Club - Boston, MA

5/14 Irving Plaza - New York, NY

5/16 9:30 Club - Washington, DC

5/17 Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA

5/19 The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC

5/21 Exit / In - Nashville, TN

5/22 Majestic Theatre - Detroit, MI

5/23 Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL

5/24 First Avenue - Minneapolis, MN

5/28 Imperial - Vancouver, BC

5/29 Wonder Ballroom -Portland, OR 5/31 The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA

6/01 The Fonda Theatre - Los Angeles, CA

6/02 The Observatory North Park - San Diego, CA

6/03 The Observatory - Santa Ana, CA

Related:

[Music Video] Vinyl Williams Puts on Kaleidoscope Eyes for "Space Age Utopia"

Virtual Psychedelia: Enter Vinyl Williams' Surreal Jungle

Enter a Virtual World of Glitches and Iridescence to Explore Rioux's Newest EP

Playable Music Video Is Like 'Fear and Loathing' in Virtual Reality