There are a lot of bad music videos out there. Jamie xx’s video for “Sleep Sound” doesn’t fall into that category. London artist/poet Sofia Mattioli was tasked to create a set of visuals for The xx member’s new song, and she found her inspiration in an unexpected way:
I was on a train listening to music, getting deep into it, and this girl started staring at me. After a while I took my headphones off and she came up to me, started signing and then wrote me a note to say that she was deaf but could almost feel the music by my movement.
The relationship between silence and music is a big part of what I am trying to express with my work. The first kid in the video, Archie, was bliss—all of them were amazing. I hope this is a project I can develop further.
Mattioli enlisted 13 members of the Manchester Deaf Centre, and together, they danced to “Sleep Sound.” The deaf dancers “responded to the movement [Mattioli] and the vibrations in the air given off by the song.” The result is something completely striking and moving, seeing the dancers experience music in such a pure and unrestrained way.
Jamie xx’s “Girl / Sleep Sound” will be released on May 5.
BREAKING BARRIERS: HOW MATT MAXEY COMBINES AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL) AND HIP-HOP
(Nowness)
