Synopsis

In a bleak, otherworldly woodland, Grimes appears as a strange forest spirit moving through a desolate landscape. Her pale, theatrical styling and ritual-like gestures contrast with glimpses of naked figures lying together on the ground, creating an atmosphere that is both intimate and unsettling. The imagery shifts between fantasy, eroticism, and alienation, while Grimes seems to observe and inhabit this damaged environment at once. The result is a stark visual counterpart to the dreamlike electronic track, with its sense of longing and unease.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video premiered on May 10, 2012, during the promotional campaign for Grimes' album Visions.

• "Nightmusic" features Majical Cloudz, the Montreal project associated with Devon Welsh. The collaboration connects the track to the same experimental scene that surrounded Grimes during the early 2010s.

• The clip was widely labeled NSFW because of its nudity and sexual imagery.

• Grimes wears one of the "pussy rings" she co-designed with Montreal jeweler and sculptor Morgan Black. The jewelry was intended to treat vaginal imagery as art rather than something shameful or taboo.

• Grimes discussed the song as engaging with a masculine world associated with sexual assault while presenting that world as strangely welcoming. She also connected the subject to her own difficulty with relationships after experiencing assault.

• The forest imagery and fantasy styling led contemporary coverage to describe Grimes as an apocalypse-era wood nymph or witch-like figure, reinforcing the collision of sci-fi, folklore, and pop performance that defined the Visions era.