I can’t say that I have ever encountered an ethereal tumbleweed in a music video, let alone a seemingly never ending multiplicity of them. In the video for Swiss Portrait’s new single, ‘Tumbleweed’, there is exactly this.
For a few years now, the Scottish artist behind Swiss Portrait, has been crafting dream-pop hit after dream-pop hit. They are an impressive artist, one that brings new flair to a saturated genre. ‘Tumbleweed’ features all the hallmarks of a great dream-pop song; hazy vocals, jangling guitars, and the insertion of real emotional clarity. This is best shown however, in the video for the song. In it, a clay character chases a number of glowing tumbleweeds, before they shrek-like shape shift into doppelgangers of the clay figure. It is a bewildering visual, one that is inexplicably moving. It only heightens the surreal nature of Swiss Portrait’s music; it’s somewhat Lynchian quality, where the surface may appear simple, but just below is something else entirely.
Swiss Portrait is a great project, one that I have been a fan of for a number of years. They consistently put out well crafted dream-pop songs that manage to rise above a saturated landscape. ‘Tumbleweed’, the song and video, are perfect examples of what makes the project different, so it behoves you to take a gander!
Written by Callum Foulds
