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Music

The Video for School of Seven Bells' "Ablaze" Is a Fragmented Thrill

The first track off the duo's final album now has a video that embodies flickering late nights and the heady swirl of falling for someone new.

School of Seven Bells shot by Clarke Tolton (above) / Justin Hollar (below) "Ablaze" is one of the strongest songs on School of Seven Bells' current and final album. It's a song that sets a certain tone: In spite of tragedy—Benjamin Curtis passing away from T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma—SVIIB is not a record steeped in sadness, but rather the triumph and beauty of two people coming together and impacting each other in profound and thrilling ways.

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If SVIIB is the story of Alley and Benjamin's love, collaboration, and ultimately friendship, then "Ablaze" is the opening chapter where two stars collide and the other's very existence makes the world look ripe and new. As such "Ablaze" is a surging, joyful pop song—a gauzy drift of Alley's magic melodies and pulsing synths.

Below is the video premiere for "Ablaze," directed by Alan Del Rio Ortiz who's helmed work for everyone from Danny Brown to St. Vincent to Major Lazer and Blood Orange. It's fragmented and giddy, snapshots flying by at a clip so fast they blur.

Alley had this to say about the video: "Casing out Chinatown, Filipinotown, stealing psychic storefronts, constellations of lanterns, ghosting through parties, and ducking into bars between the stitches—I find it all put back together like a night sweating out a fever. My fever. It feels like I'm throwing the story back to myself, checked by life, through a long spell of dreaming. Much needed. Buenas Noches Amores. Thank you, Alan Del Rio, for the hot coals. Enjoy, Friends."

Watch below and click here to read our extensive and intimate profile on the duo.

Kim Taylor Bennett would like to fall in love again. She's on Twitter.