In 2018, Okraina Records released one of the most beautiful albums I’ve heard in a long time and it’s one I still frequently love returning to. Titled Au Cube (it was recorded live at Cube Microplex cinema in Bristol), it featured Scottish singer and guitarist Alasdair Roberts, Glasgow-based instrumentalist and aficionado of Breton music Neil McDermott and French traditional group Tartine de Clous.
Today, we get to enjoy a new video for one of the songs – Brave Marin. In his album review of Au Cube, Thomas Blake concluded:
Belgium-based indie label Okraina is beginning to make a habit out of releasing these multi-cultural, often experimental records that catalogue a specific time and place. Au Cube, like all of their releases, is immaculately packaged, pressed on to ten-inch vinyl, with vibrant artwork courtesy of Gwénola Carrère. It is tempting to position the album as a kind of argument against the narrow-mindedness and provincialism of current politics (and in particular Britain’s relationship with Europe) or to try to defend its outward-looking approach in the face those myopic political stances. But musical collaboration does not necessarily need defending – songs as potent as this have been around for centuries and will surely still have an audience when the affairs of the present day are distant memories.
Much like the album, the accompanying video for Brave Marin is superb. Directed by Guillaume Maupin & Pablo Guarise and produced by Tartine de Clous, it has a timeless quality, shot at Cinema Nova (Brussels) with footage of the original performance projected onto a wall. It works so well and takes the song to another level, helped of course by actress Lázara Rosell Albear. It’s also our Song of the Day.
Order the album here: https://okrainarecords.bandcamp.com/album/au-cube
