Last year the first single from Koishii & Hush’s debut album, Odyssey, came out. "C’est Tout est Noir," a collaboration with John Taylor, was released on January 8th, 2013. K&H were not only Duran Duran fans, but very influenced by the band’s sound, so it was admittedly quite exciting for them to work with someone they’d looked up to musically. With remixes of the single available on iTunes and Beatport, and a special maxi CD pressing of just 500 copies signed by Simon Langford, Alex Sowyrda [Koishii & Hush] and John, this project grabbed attention on first listen. With DJ support around the globe, "C’est Tout est Noir” used John’s vocals to great effect, much to the excitement of fans who had been wondering when they’d hear him sing again.
Said Alex Sowyrda at the time, "When we started planning the album, we compiled a wish list of people we would love to have collaborate with us and John was one of those people. We had been in contact with Duran’s management for a while and they pitched our concept to John and luckily he was into our idea. From that point on we collaborated in person, by phone and email.”
The band have now put together a video for "C’est Tout est Noir," with John saying "It's quite a thrill for me to see the release of this video. Strange, without my bass guitar! It was an enjoyable process, writing and singing this song for Koishii and Hush, different from the DD process by about a hundred miles. I hope the lyric is not too ponderous. “Desiderata" anyone? Is it too late to call it the follow-up to 'I Do What I do'? "
Alex and director Andrew Baird shared their insight in to the making of the video, which is debuting exclusively on duranduran.com today.
Andrew: "Inspired by the last days of Marilyn Monroe. A young starlet enters the residence of a classic movie star and experiences the ghosts of her past to the point where she comes face to face with the dead star and her potentially dark future. Film Noir with an electronic remix."
Alex: “This was our first time working with Andrew and he and his team did a fantastic job on the video. It is very much a mini movie that captures the mood and feel of the song. The two actresses, Tina Casciani and Lauren DiMarco went above and beyond the call of duty. It was filmed in Palm Springs and edited by Brian Wimer in Virginia and we could not be more pleased with the result.”
Lisa Tribble, wife of famed film director Ken Russell, had this to say about the video “Andrew Baird’s work is astonishing, emotional, provocative, sexy, cinematic and alluring. Unkle Ken's and my favorite commercial director. Ace photographer and cinematographer. He pushes the customary image past its limits. The red dress at the bottom of the pool. . . The girl in aspects of despair… Damn, I was paying no attention on the other side when the call to incarnate as a supermodel went out.”
Ladies and gentlemen…."C’est Tout est Noir”