Nick Storring is a Toronto-based avant-garde composer who in anticipation of an upcoming album, recently premiered a new video for “My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell.” The video perfectly pairs Storring’s music with the “zine/DIY” style animations of Ellie Anglin.
The track itself is a beautiful work of layered instruments all composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Nick Storring himself. The track bounces from soft cello melodies to moments of almost absolute silence, to then, peaks where various forms of percussion and some instruments unnameable create a full sound that washes over you and creates a heavy sense of gloom. Traditional to Nick Storring’s typical work, the track (and album) was created primarily from acoustic and electromechanical instruments with a focus on minimal electronic processing. As mentioned on Bandcamp, the album acts as an homage to the work of Roberta Flack as the song titles are derived from lyrics within her work. “My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell” is a truly amazing and complex track that manages to cover a vast range of sound and emotion. This song pulls you back in for multiple listens, especially when paired with the animations created by Ellie Anglin.
The video for “My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell” is composed of layers (much like the song itself) of cut and paste style stop-motion animation. Ellie Anglin masterfully matches the wax and wanes of Storring’s composing. Cityscapes both old and new sit as a background while a wide variety of images make their way across the screen. From Rice a Roni and flour packaging to old Cadillacs and planets, the images find a way to create a voice for the music behind it while also being a strong reflection of the animator’s style and background.
The full album My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell is due out on March 27, on Orange Milk Records.
All words by Jacob Saxton