Synopsis

An unofficial montage pairs "Moth" with fragments from two very different films. Intimate black-and-white images from Jean-Luc Godard's 1964 "Une femme mariee" are intercut with rougher, street-level material from Adolf Winkelmann's 1978 German film "Die Abfahrer." Faces, bodies, bedrooms, roads and restless urban movement drift in and out of sync with the track's warm synth figures and broken percussion. Rather than following a new narrative, the video creates a dreamy, impressionistic atmosphere built around fleeting gestures, motion and emotional distance.

Factoids & Trivia

• The circulating video is an unofficial music video, uploaded to Vimeo by a user identified as Falentin. It was presented as a music video for the Burial and Four Tet collaboration rather than as an artist-sanctioned production.

• Its footage comes from two films: Jean-Luc Godard's "Une femme mariee" (1964) and Adolf Winkelmann's "Die Abfahrer" (1978). The pairing gives the edit a contrast between French New Wave intimacy and late-1970s German urban restlessness.

• "Une femme mariee" was filmed in black and white and is structured as a modernist series of fragments. That fragmented source material fits the track's spacious, looping arrangement particularly closely.

• "Moth" was originally released on May 4, 2009, as part of the vinyl-only "Moth / Wolf Cub" single on Four Tet's Text Records label. The limited 12-inch came in a completely black sleeve with a black label and no liner notes.

• Burial and Four Tet were former schoolmates and had known each other for years before collaborating. Four Tet later explained that they worked together in the studio, using two computers rather than exchanging files remotely.

• The collaboration was mixed at Miloco's The Square in London. Four Tet described the process as combining Burial's Sound Forge-based work with Pro Tools and an SSL console.

• Four Tet characterized "Moth" as a slower, soulful house-influenced track rather than the gloomy dubstep collaboration some listeners might have expected.

• The track remained difficult to obtain for years because of the limited vinyl release. Four Tet eventually issued "Nova / Moth" digitally through Text Records in February 2022.