Massive Attack release tense new video for ‘Come Near Me’

Massive Attack have released a new song for their Ghostpoet-featuring “Come Near Me”. The song was released earlier this week via Fantom, the band’s reactive remix app, that plays songs in different configurations depending on a variety of environmental settings with your phone.

Its tense, stylish new video, directed by Ed Morris, was shot in a day in Hove, and stars Kosovar actress Arta Dobroshi and British actor Jonathan Aris as a couple adrift in a destructive relationship. “The idea, everything I considered came from the track,” Morris tells us, “The notion of an emotional stand off, an impasse, came about quite early. I explored that visually.”

“When you are going through something tough emotionally the world around you can seem so surreal. So pointless,” he continues, “The world we portray around them is a very normal one, almost painfully normal. It’s a complete contrast to their madness.”

Morris describes the video as a “very singular, simple visual narrative”, but this simplicity is given a sudden jolt midway through when it’s interrupted by the unexpected use of Massive Attack’s own “Unfinished Sympathy”. “‘Unfinished Sympathy’ brings such nostalgia and love with it,” Morris says, “It’s basically the 90s showing up in a present day promo.”

Watch the video above, and check out some behind-the-scenes shots too.