Kelela - A Message

What this video is

Released March 3, 2015, 'A Message' premiered simultaneously with the announcement of Kelela's debut EP Hallucinogen (Warp Records / Cherry Coffee Music), representing a pivotal moment in the consolidation of a mid-2010s experimental R&B underground into mainstream critical discourse. Produced by Arca — then freshly associated with Björk's Vulnicura — the song carries the sonic signature of the Night Slugs / Fade…

Why it matters

The video is a landmark artefact of alt-R&B's visual language circa 2015: it rejected the polished aspirationalism of mainstream R&B video production in favour of intimate darkness, conceptual restraint, and hybrid media. Its live-action/anime hybrid anticipated a broader trend of cross-cultural…

The director

Daniel Sannwald is a German-born photographer and director, born 1979, based in London. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. He is a regular contributor to Dazed, i-D, Vogue, and Arena Homme+. His visual work is noted for hyperreal,…