Fever Ray When I Grow Up Director: Martin de Thurah

Fever Ray’s Karin Dreijer Andersson and Danish Director Martin de Thurah seem to have met at a creative crossroads. Fever Ray is a dark and deeply introspective work, exploring lots of child-like imagery as Dreijer Andersson tended to her newborn daughter. De Thurah is well versed on childhood innocence, having recently screened films starring children at the Cannes and Venice film festivals. He’s says he’s ready to move on to a new direction, yet here he is shooting “When I Grow Up.”

The song is a monster. The slow-building exercise in synthesizer aerobics matches beautifully with the dark and dreary elements of de Thurah’s mis-en-scene. As we noted last week upon the album’s release, Dreijer Andersson has brought all of the slow, droning aspects of The Knife, along with her cavernous echoed vocals, to her solo LP. The single release of “When I Grow Up” is laughably named, clocking in at just over an hour and with nine (!) tracks, 8 of them remixes from the likes of Pär Grindvik, Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid. The only one of note, though, is the D.Lissik version. An uptempo reimaging that converts the melody to an acoustic guitar, it also features field recordings of children playing and a new recorder melody.

De Thurah’s most impressive effort to date has been the clip for Röyksopp’s “What Else is There?” featuring, unsurprisingly, Karin Dreijer (no Andersson back then). “When I Grow Up” borrows certain thematic elements from that clip, namely, the use of a fair-haired blue eyed Scandinavian model in place of the vocalist. But in a noted shift from his earlier work, “When I Grow Up” is full of long, slow-panning takes, with lots of atmosphere but not much movement within the frame. De Thurah’s films tend to have operatic landscapes, and he is extremely skilled at creating life from a still form.

Any movement within the frame comes from his protagonist, a mousy Scandinavian girl covered in bits of mismatched fabric and paint. Like any good music video director, de Thurah takes his visual cues from the music, to the point that the girl could be conducting the explosions in the pool as well as the song. The vibe is very “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” and the flighty, child-like lyrics seem right at home with the kooky little girl dancing on the diving board with eyes drawn in her palms.

Fever Ray on tour

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

Related article: Fever Ray – s/t [Album Review]

Written by: Matthew Ismael Ruiz on April 3rd, 2009 | Filed under Features, Music Video Reviews