Lael Neale - I Am The River

What this video is

Released 31 January 2023 as the lead single from Star Eaters Delight (Sub Pop), 'I Am The River' emerged from a creatively fertile period Lael Neale spent on her family's farm in rural Virginia following her return from Los Angeles at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. The album and its accompanying videos are products of pandemic-era isolation transmuted into outward-reaching celebration. The…

Why it matters

A landmark single in early-2020s Sub Pop minimalist drone-pop, 'I Am The River' crystallises Neale's signature aesthetic: Omnichord-driven hypnotic repetition, stark lyrical imagery drawn from nature, and a detached yet emotionally resonant vocal delivery evoking comparisons to the Velvet…

The director

Lael Neale is a Virginia-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter signed to Sub Pop Records. Born and raised on a farm in rural Virginia, she moved to California to pursue music in 2009. She discovered the Omnichord in 2019, sparking a new minimalist…