Melodium – Midpoint Music Video Premiere

Droning strings find their visual counterparts in the moving paintings of director Peter Luckner, who has collaborated with Melodium’s Laurent Girard on this slowly unfolding piece.

Droning layers of strings find their visual counterparts in the moving paintings of director Peter Luckner, who has collaborated with Melodium’s Laurent Girard on this slowly unfolding piece.

“The Melodium ‘Midpoint’ video was the result of my discussions with Matt from Abandon Building Records. He and I share a lot of the same predispositions toward sound and visuals…” Luckner comments. “I wanted to work with the atmosphere in ‘Midpoint’ but it may have turned a little darker than the atmosphere in the actual song lets on.”


The final music video draws influence from Luckner’s early obsession with David Lynch films, and combines animated paintings with footage from the films Friday the 13th and Fire in the Sky.

“The clips in the video are of moments just before the person is about to be abducted, the girl is going to be grabbed by Jason and pulled under water, the man is going to be sucked into a space ship,” Luckner explains. “I love the air in those scenes; I could watch the scene in Fire in the Sky on loop.

“I am sort of a junky for experimenting with ways of making paintings move,” Luckner continues. “I suppose that’s what draws me to working with experimental music.”

Without having spoken to Luckner about the piece, Girard has his own viewpoint on the connection between the imagery and the music, but the conclusions are similar. He also finds direct correlations between the his music’s many melodic layers and the superposition of visual layers.

“I would say the video has the same mood as my music… it looks sad but also i think it could contain hope,” muses Girard. “At the end, the character looks something in the sky as if he finds something, like an answer… like the end of his nightmare.”

Midpoint - Melodium Music Video

Melodium’s full-length, Taramae, is out now on Abandon Building Records.

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Written by
Vee Hua 華婷婷

Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer with semi-nomadic tendencies. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Editor-in-Chief of REDEFINE, Interim Managing Editor of South Seattle Emerald, and Co-Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. They also previously served as the Executive Director of the interdisciplinary community hub, Northwest Film Forum, where they played a key role in making the space more welcoming and accessible for diverse audiences.

Vee has two narrative short films. Searching Skies (2017) touches on Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States; with it, they helped co-organize The Seventh Art Stand, a national film and civil rights discussion series against Islamophobia. Reckless Spirits (2022) is a metaphysical, multi-lingual POC buddy comedy for a bleak new era, in anticipation of a feature-length project.

Vee is passionate about cultural space, the environment, and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures. They also regularly share observational human stories through their storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE!, and are pursuing a Master’s in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota.

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