(GM) London-based artist & composer Jerskin Fendrix has shared the music video for "Beth's Farm", the lead single from his highly anticipated sophomore album Once Upon A Time. . . In Shropshire.
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, the breathtaking short film explores the song's themes of loss, sentimentality and bittersweet childhood nostalgia through the trademark surrealist lens of the lauded filmmaker.
The collaboration is another testament to the trio's wildly successful creative partnership that has run through Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness and forthcoming Focus Features film Bugonia, due out on October 24th shortly after the release of Jerskin's new album.
About the video, director Yorgos Lanthimos said: "It was lovely to team up again with Emma and a number of people that we have been working with for quite a while to contribute a bit of film narrative to what I think is a remarkable second personal album by our very important artistic collaborator and friend, Jerskin Fendrix"
Out October 10th via untitled (recs) (Lauren Auder, deathcrash), Once Upon A Time. . . In Shropshire acts as a love letter to something that once existed - a shining, rose-tinted childhood and the lives that made it. It posits that grief is complex and memory is intoxicating - and that Shropshire can contain the entire world.
Jerskin Fendrix's 2020 debut Winterreise placed him among a rising group of artists in the South London scene, and captured the imagination of director Yorgos Lanthimos, who tapped Jerskin to score Poor Things. The experimental artist was quickly catapulted to international acclaim, with the score receiving BAFTA, Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, and Jerskin winning an Ivor Novello award, and Film Composer of the Year and Discovery of the Year awards at the 2024 World Soundtrack Awards.
In-between time spent nurturing his burgeoning career as a composer (working on Lanthimos' Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness & forthcoming Bugonia), Jerskin began work on Once Upon A Time. . . In Shropshire. The record threads together memories of a vibrant, rural childhood, attempting to capture a time and place that's been altered by the ebb of time and the failings of memory. "I wrote this album during a period of sudden and unrelated deaths. A friend, family members, animals, and eventually my father," he shares. "My album about Shropshire is a twofold testament. looking back on the world where I grew up, its beauty and innocence and wonder - then watching it become corrupted, death by death, until the entire dream was shattered."
"Beth's Farm" is preceded by the jarringly opposed singles "Sk1" & "Jerskin Fendrix Freestyle," the former sketched around a foreboding bassline and climactic post-rock chorus, and the latter a blistering & riotous post-punk anthem. NPR discussed "Sk1" on All Things Considered, calling it "just incredible" and the track was named a Song of the Week by Consequence.
The video release comes with the news of a homecoming of sorts at celebrated South London music venue Windmill Brixton for an intimate live show on September 10th.
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