After last year’s “Consolation” EP, inspired by Franz Kafka‘s Diaries, Gentle Ropes, the post-punk / darkgaze music brainchild of Ukrainian multi-instrumentalist Serj Kost, based out of Kyiv, along with the precious contribution of Stefan on bass, return with the new single/video “Burning Flowers”, the title track from the forthcoming new album.
Swirling cosmic synths soar around crystalline sparkling guitar melodies, slow hypnotic snares and throbbing bassline’s resonant undertow to form a narcotic layer of trance-inducing reverb static over emotionally tormented wandering male vocals eclipsed by guilt and echoed shame by a muffled serpentine hiss.
Confessional lyrics reveal a life lost to anger, hopelessness, and avoidance, allowing self-harm and dark instincts to spiral into deathly destruction.
The surreal video, directed by Anushik Petrosyan and photographed by Dania Wentseslavsky, depicts a lone figure dressed in black bound to the earth like iron by a light flowing fabric. The clash of colourless contrasts rotates weightlessly in slow motion against the bleak winter landscape, where a motionless body lies exposed. Spinning forestry evades time set by an eternal sea ebb, as cloudy overlay transitions build mystery and doom before revealing beautiful, fresh flowers, like human organs, seared upon a deformed heart appendage. A romantic bed of petals holds the expressionless gaze of lost innocence, while a crown of pink roses suffocates the claustrophobic stench of betrayal.
photo by @tthpvmnt
