Xenoula’s “Caramello” Video Feels Like A Mirage
Watch the new visuals from the mysterious U.K. artist.
"Caramello," the second single from experimental pop artist Xenoula. Real name Romy Xeno, she grew up in South Africa until she was 16 when she moved back to the U.K., where she currently resides in a tranquil region of north Wales. Her ethereal and melodic music calls on the rhythms of nature as well as a past spent traveling across continents and the mish-mash of musical influences that inevitably brings.
The video sees Xenoula wandering alone across an over-exposed desert setting. Reminiscent of David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes" video, or David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune, the kaleidoscopic visuals are mesmerising. It's never made clear where she came from, or where she's heading but you watch in hope of an answer. Produced by Sam Dust of L.A. Priest and Soft Hair, "Caramello" sounds like a version of The Cardigans' "Lovefool" that's warped in the sun beating down on the sand.
Asked to explain the video by The FADER, Xenoula instead sent this poem by email:
In a unified cave,
Of grey beams,
And kite shadows,
Who play along,
The wooden fence and window breast,
Many moons ago,
They came and filtered out the day.
In question of perplexed frames
All together side ways games.
Banishing a fable for coarse words,
No forefront thoughts.
The resolution food,
Wide eye,
Birth right curse,
Imaging a holy man,
Let’s burn the seed,
And leave the sun to work in vain,
Only aqua duck replies the thirst,
As thimble picked a weasel,
The night not long,
It whisps a hill,
And answers for no reason."
Check out the "Caramello" video above.