‘Belleville Sun’ by Louise Quinn & Gates of Light | Debut Album Out Now Via All DSPS, Vinyl Edition Out April 29 via Shimmy-Disc/Joyful Noise
Exclusive video premiere of ‘Belleville Sun’ by Gates Of Light, taken from the debut album out now via all DSPS, Vinyl Edition out April 29 via Shimmy-Disc/Joyful Noise.
The single will be launched alongside a video by award winning Scottish director Grant McPhee (Teenage Superstars, Big Gold Dream, Far From The Apple Tree). Featuring Louise in Glasgow’s breathtaking Necropolis cemetery and Kid Loco in Paris’s Père Lachaise Cemetery, the video was shot across two cities by Grant and French director Mathieu Kauffmann on a 1963 Eclair 16mm for a stunning retro feel.
“Don’t say it’s over, when the day has just begun. Cast off your ghosts and turn your face towards the sun,” Louise sings in a balmy summer’s day of a track, guiding the listener on a wander through Paris with woozy guitars and soothing vocals.
“So lucky getting to work with Grant McPhee again on another Gates Of Light video and on 16mm again; but as with the last video shoot we done together our plans of filming outdoors in Glasgow were thwarted by torrential rain! Originally the plan was to send Grant to Paris to film with Kid Loco but unfortunately travel restrictions prevented that from happening so French Director Mathieu Kauffmann very kindly stepped in to shoot the Paris footage in the iconic Père Lachaise Cemetery. Grant and I filmed the outdoor Glasgow footage in the stunning Glasgow Necropolis where they shot the latest Batman movie. I absolutely love the video; it feels like an integral part of the track rather than an afterthought; it has an effortless timelessness whilst being very present. Grant has cut the Paris footage with the Glasgow footage beautifully and the 1963 Eclair footage evokes the sixties musical influences of the track; Nico; Vashti Bunyan; The Beatles etc… It also ties in well with the songs themes of memory, staying in the moment and making the most of now.” Louise Quinn
Hailing from Glasgow, singer-songwriter Louise Quinn and producer Bal Cooke teamed up with London-based DJ and producer Scott Fraser; Parisian musician, DJ and producer Kid Loco; and film director and photographer, New York’s Tim Saccenti — who has previously worked with Run The Jewels and Pharell — to create a sublime, electro-pop reflection on the grief, insularity and peculiar highs of lockdown. Immediately after hearing the album, revered post-punk musician and producer Kramer offered to release the vinyl edition on his iconic cult label Shimmy-Disc, which boasts an impressive back catalogue of artists including Daniel Johnson, Low and Galaxie 500.
A project grounded on collaboration — born from a period of disconnect — Gates Of Light perfectly amplifies the longing, confusion, lucid dreams and appreciation of the outdoors that the pandemic ignited in so many over the last couple of years. Originally written and recorded by Louise and Bal from their bedroom studio in Glasgow whilst their one-year-old twins slept, the tracks were then sent to Scott and Kid Loco who remixed the tracks from home studios in London and Paris before Tim created the artwork and a video for the track “When The Leaf Falls.”
Gates Of Light is the latest project from Louise and Bal who have released music in the past as A Band Called Quinn and DAWNINGS. Louise and Scott Fraser have also previously collaborated following a chance encounter at a nightclub in Glasgow. Their single “Together More” was released on Andrew Weatherall’s renowned Birdscarer vinyl imprint in 2019 and featured a remix by the Guv’nor himself who described the track as “sublime magik.”
Headline photo by Brian Sweeney
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