We would love to lay claim to introducing this beautiful single ‘Tell Me Where To Go’ from London-based musician Peter Beatty, but we’ve already been beaten to that accolade. The music video and song has been showcased at international film festivals and was already awarded Best Song at the Cannes World Film Awards in July 2023. It’s certainly not typical for us to feature something from the film world, but as it happens, Beatty was also led down that path when his album was hindered by the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.
Here, the multi-faceted creative explained his inventive workaround:
“I decided to build a world of visual work around the songs including animations and illustrations. The video was an epic labour of love to make and was shot entirely on a boat over an 18 month period. It’s a song about a boat trip, made into an animation about an epic boat voyage, all made on a boat – which is also the boat where I live. It’s ended up quite a ‘boat meta’ story.”
The result is an utterly enthralling escape into another world; one built of familiar motifs, but equally ethereal and foreign. In keeping with these celestial visuals, Peter Beatty offers a soothing alt-folk soundscape that draws on both contemporary and vintage songwriting, inspired by a wide array of iconic names from Sufjan Stevens to Laura Viers to Leonard Cohen to Bob Dylan. The gentle sways, the intelligent production and the delightful melodies take us on a journey of seemingly endless possibility, as the artist sings, “just tell me where to go.” We can especially hear a Belle & Sebastian inspiration in the vocal style that connects us with distant evenings flipping vinyls and dreaming of the future.
Soothing and sentimental, ‘Tell Me Where To Go’ is a timeless treat that beckons listens to pause for a moment and take stock of where you are right now. If Peter Beatty‘s recent release struck such a chord with you as it did for us, then you’ll want to keep an eye out for his upcoming debut album release, Different Flowers, due out in January 2024.
You can also listen to ‘Tell Me Where To Go’ in our Folk This Way playlist.
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