Dublin artist GALVO releases first single and video

Irish artist GALVO released his first solo single 'Leave the Light On' after being part of 'a dark horse' band prior. The new release is part of an EP under the same name that contains two different versions of the single and two eerie standalones: 'Guess it's Getting Dark - B-Side' and 'The World's Gone Crazy - Live'.

These tracks are the preface to a full length album set to be released later this year titled The HeARTist. 'Leave the Light On' was accompanied by the release of a music video, equally as disorienting and hypnotising as the song itself. Directed by Galvo & Conor Beegan of Lejourneyisms the video stars Galvo & Anne Marie Kelly, with makeup by Aoife Hendrick.

GALVO. Photo by Conor Beegan.

The video follows two ghostly, ghoulish figures in shades of black and white as they dance in the sun and cry in the night. The cuts between shots are either slow slides into each other or shuttered like the capture of a camera lens. With the refrain of "leave the light on" as the figures' backing track, the contrast between light and dark is exaggerated. The viewer is left with confusion about which light and for whom it must remain lit.

Is the light the ineffable beauty of falling in love? We see the figures twirl in each others arms, foreheads pressed together as the sun and the moon carry out their endless march across the sky.

Is the light the brightness of day which softens the nightmarish glare of the figures for the onlooker? In the dark they play with fire, forced apart more often than they're together- disembodied. There's ambiguity in the artistry as much as there is pain in the end.

According to the artist, 'Leave the Light On' "is a song written in two epochs, some nine years apart. Looking back like a ghost at the life and love that once was, objectively viewing one’s life from two very different time periods. It’s a haunting, bittersweet tale of sentiment and history, which became the theme for the music video."

Watch the video below.