Ten Degrees of Strange
May 6, 2021 sees the release of the extraordinary video by US clay-animation artist Lynn Tomlinson, to accompany ‘Ten Degrees of Strange, the lead single from Lost in the Cedar Wood – the fifth album from Johnny Flynn, written in collaboration with his friend Robert Macfarlane.
Johnny and Robert say: "‘Ten Degrees of Strange’ is a song about trying to outrun anxiety, seeking joy and strength in landscape and movement.
We fell in love with Lynn’s work after coming across it by chance. Her unique clay-on-glass animation technique lends itself so beautifully to the themes and rhythms of the song. Clay runs as a motif through our album – it is the material of transformations and re-figurings, and it formed the ancient tablets on which the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of our song-writing inspirations, was first recorded. So it made perfect sense to ask Lynn, an artist working miracles with clay, to create our video. She’s made a minor masterpiece, we think: a music video like no other."
Lynn Tomlinson comments, "One of the unexpected benefits of the pandemic is that isolation forces us to find creative ways to work together, such as this international collaboration, devised entirely through emails and video chats. Robert and Johnny reached out to me about the possibility of creating a film to accompany their song. As a medium, clay holds a lot of power — its malleability allows me to transition fluidly from scene to scene, much as the natural world shifts and evolves over time. In many ways my clay on glass animation is naturally suited for telling stories about the passage of time, evolving perspectives, and cycles in nature. ‘Ten Degrees of Strange’ is a wonderful song, full of energy and nuance, and though I listened to it hundreds of times as I worked, it never lost its magic."
