Tess Parks has shared a new single, ‘Do You Pray?’, lifted from her upcoming album And Those Who Were Seen Dancing. The track follows previous entries ‘Happy Birthday Forever’ and ‘Brexit At Tiffany’s’, and it comes with an accompanying video directed by Gsus Lopez. Check it out below.
“My friend Annie just asked me one day out of the blue, ‘Do you pray?’, and I thought, ‘Wow, yes I love that and yes I do, every day,’” Parks said in a statement. “The song is a mix of two traditionals: ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’ and ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’. This is one of a few songs on the album where my dad can be heard playing my grand-fathers old piano.”
Commenting on the video, she added:
Mark Wagner is seen whirling like a dervish, a sacred dance derived from the ancient Sufi practise, ritual and meditation of the ‘Sema’. The dance is trance and euphoria-inducing and offers a sense of connectedness and expansiveness among many other virtues. I have been a fan of Mark Wagner for years now. I can’t even remember how I came across him, but I would always watch his videos and be absolutely mesmerised.
I messaged him late last year and asked him to dance in this video and I said he could choose wherever he wanted to in the whole world to film it. Our correspondence was no more than a few e-mails back and forth, not even a phone call. He sent me this video and I was actually speechless. Not only had I been unaware that he was based in London, but we had shot outtakes for the 2018 album cover with Anton [Newcombe] at the exact location that he had chosen. Mysticism at its finest!
And Those Who Were Seen Dancing is out May 20 on Fuzz Club/Hand Drawn Dracula.
