WATCH: Trick Mist shares captivating video for ‘Willingdon Island’

Multi-instrumentalist Gavin Murray, known by his moniker Trick Mist, has released a stunning music video for his single 'Willingdon Island' from his sophomore album The Hedge Maze and The Spade.

The Cork-based musician has teamed up with legendary Irish broadcaster and artist Donal Dineeen and Peter Martin who directed this magnetic video for his latest single featuring vocals from Elaine Howley.

The visual for this captivating track features the musician on his lonesome, backlit by stunning deep pink tones, in an eery church-like setting. Vocal magic fronts the release, distracting from everything else occurring in the video. Howley's light harmonies combined with the rich, deep tones from Murray forms the most beautiful complimentary sound, unlike anything else in the folk category.

Speaking about the track, the musician said: "'Willingdon Island' is a song about hope. It draws from the tradition of Irish balladry. Here this traditional form is presented in an abstract, experimental way.

"The song is named after an island that the British built in southern India during colonial rule. It was made with reclaimed earth from the bottom of the sea that they dug up when building a port. A hopeful vision emerges from the song and ultimately conquers the dystopian landscape of an imagined future."

Director Donal Dineen brought some light to the production of the video saying: "The song 'Willingdon Island' is built on such a strangely beautiful bed of sound, it took myself and my co-director Peter Martin a while to figure out which direction we should go with the video.

"We wanted to emphasise the inherent drama and beauty of the vocals. So we set about planning a live shoot with Gavin involved. Thankfully Peter lives in a beautiful castle gate lodge in Sligo so we were able to assign a weekend to the job and set up there without fear of disturbance.

Having settled in and chatted things through on the Friday, we started setting up early on Saturday with a view to shooting at dusk. I can honestly say that the collaborative effort between the three of us to get everything right was one of the most enjoyable days of 2022. Our ambition was to try to match the song tonally with the pictures while highlighting just how beautifully constructed a song it is. It took a lot of tweaking but I think we got there."

This video for 'Willingdon Island' is the fourth instalment of the unique music video and podcast series 'Tracing Places', which has been funded by the Arts Council.

The project involves four artists making four videos for four new songs and an adjoining four part podcast series hosted by Trick Mist.

"I’ve been working with these amazing artists in an unusual way," Murray said. "The artists were given full creative control over their art, making music videos based purely on their reaction to the song. Basically how it worked was I would send the artist the song and the lyrics. That was it. I would offer no directives. I see the video when it's finished. Simple as that! My ambition is to emphasise individual perception, place it on a platform and celebrate it."

He continues: "When the works are completed I will host a stand alone 4 part podcast series. Each podcast will essentially be a discussion with the artist about the work created, their ideas behind the video, their interpretation of the song and my ideas behind the song. I’ll really try and tease out the intersection (if any) between us. There might not be any and that's cool too. It's all to play for. This will be the first time our concepts will meet. We're going to communicate them here on the podcast, out in the open."

To hear more from Trick Mist, have a look at our recent Hot Press interview with the extremely talented musician - here.

Check out the video for 'Willingdon Island' below.

Tour Dates:

Fri 7th Oct - London: Old Blue Last
Sat 8th Oct - Manchester: Castle Hotel
Sun 9th Oct - Glasgow: Nice N Sleazy
Tue 18th Oct - Dundalk: Spirit Store
Wed 19th Oct - Dublin: The Workman’s Cellar
Fri 21st Oct - Limerick: Pharmacia
Sun 23rd Oct - Cork : Coughlan's