Moon Duo

 
Leading into this Friday’s release of Moon Duo’s two-part psychedelic opus, Occult Architecture Vol. 1, Ripley Johnson (guitar) and Sanae Yamada (keyboards) are presenting the animated video for lead single, “Cold Fear.” The video’s animation, directed by Micah Buzan, embraces Moon Duo’s darker qualities in line with the themes of Vol. 1.
 
Buzan describes his process in creating the video: "For Moon Duo’s music video, I had 5 weeks to make 5 minutes of animation. Being a one-man-studio, one minute of animation can easily take me 100 hours to produce. I learned how to animate more quickly by trusting in the process to take care of itself. I animated one scene after another, with basically no idea for what was going to happen next. Moon Duo gave my some tips for the video and a general idea for how to end it so that we could lead into the next video, but other than knowing the ending, I had no idea what I was doing. 
 
I decided to focus on making one drawing at a time in order to let the animation grow organically. I didn’t want to make something too random, but I also didn’t want to force a storyline. The main objective was to create visuals that matched the paranoid energy of Moon Duo's song ‘Cold Fear.’ There is a theme in my animation of growth and decay, which mirrors Moon Duo’s Yin and Yang concept from their new work."
 
Watch the video for ‘Cold Fear’: https://youtu.be/VwZG_jY9gFs
 
The Occult Architecture of Moon Duo’s fourth album - a psychedelic opus in two separate volumes - is an intricately woven hymn to the invisible structures found in the cycle of seasons and the journey of day into night, dark into light through the Chinese theory of Yin and Yang.
 
Vol. 1 represents the Yin, which in Chinese means “the shady side of the hill” and is associated with the feminine, darkness, night, earth. This volume embraces and embodies Moon Duo’s darker qualities — released appropriately in the heart of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
  
Moon Duo is led by Ripley Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada. Written and recorded in their hometown of Portland, Oregon, the two-part epic Occult Architecture reflects the hidden energies of rainclouds and sunshine and the deep creep of Northwest forests along with their effect on the psyche, inspired by the occult and esoteric literature of Mary Anne Atwood, Aleister Crowley, Colin Wilson, and Manly P. Hall. 
 
Sonically the new records represent a dimensional shift in perspective for the band. Just as the season of autumn represents letting go in the form of trees shedding leaves, so Occult Architecture is a shedding of genre tropes, and an inviting in of new textures and soundscapes reflective of the album’s shimmering Yin/Yang qualities.