Synopsis

A man and woman drift through a tense, intimate encounter shaped by attraction, uncertainty and danger. The video presents their relationship as a circular emotional pull, with moments of closeness giving way to unease and self-destructive impulses. Rather than staging a conventional Greek tragedy, it uses suggestive images, tactile textures and a recurring sense of motion to evoke the excitement of desire and the loneliness that can follow it. Its ending loops back toward its beginning, leaving the couple's fate suspended between romance and collapse.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was shot over two days while traveling around Norfolk, England, following a deliberately loose schedule. Every scene filmed during the trip was used in the finished piece.

• Fuji S16mm film was chosen not only for its texture, but also to impose creative discipline on the production and limit the amount of material being captured.

• The two credited performers are Chloe Farnworth and Mark Wallington.

• The title refers to Melpomene, the Greek muse associated with tragedy. The video's concept draws on traditional images of the muse, including daggers and death, but relocates those ideas into a modern story about excitement, desire and danger.

• The circular structure of the film mirrors the song's own movement, which repeatedly surges, retreats and returns. Contemporary coverage also noted that the video begins where it ends, reinforcing its uneasy portrait of relationships.

• "Melpomene" was released by Planet Mu on July 2, 2012, as a 7-inch and digital single, ahead of the album "Tragicomedies."

• The video received a nomination for Best Alternative Video - Budget at the 2012 UK Music Video Awards.