Synopsis

Colin Stetson's "Those Who Didn't Run" unfolds as a slow, hypnotic vision of the natural world. Images of rushing water, trees, a moonlit sky, valleys and shadowy primordial forms dissolve into kaleidoscopic, dreamlike patterns. A rhinoceros gradually emerges as a ghostly Rorschach-like shape, giving the abstract landscape a recurring emblem. Rather than following a literal narrative, the video mirrors the track's gradual transformation from unease toward stillness, creating an immersive visual space where fear seems to recede into a strange, peaceful wilderness.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video premiered in December 2011, shortly after the release of the EP *Those Who Didn't Run* on Constellation Records.

• The title track runs for more than ten minutes, and the video's deliberately extended pacing was conceived to match the music rather than impose a conventional storyline.

• Stetson specifically asked for rhinoceros imagery to appear in the video. The animal was ultimately represented in an indistinct, symmetrical form that resembles a Rorschach blot rather than a straightforward wildlife shot.

• The visual concept was intended to unfold gradually, allowing viewers to become immersed in the imagery and drift into its atmosphere as the music develops.

• Stetson described the song as dealing with the end of fear and the image of a peaceful valley. He also framed it as an opposing character to "Judges," a piece associated with fear on *New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges*.

• Members of the visual team had previously made video work connected with Bon Iver, whose music Stetson had also worked with as a touring and recording musician.