otta’s “small hours” video is at one with nature

South London’s otta crafts a perfect piece of melancholy pop on new song "small hours." The track is described by the half-Finnish, half-British artist as "an epic poem about my terrible morning." Filled with pillow-soft drums and delicate synths, the self-produced "small hours" chanels the emotional turmoil of a stuttering relationship into three minutes of bittersweet longing.

The "small hours" video, premiering above, was filmed back in Finland and captures a sense of serenity and space perfectly. The interior scenes, shot in a London flat, meanwhile, offer a more manic and claustrophobic take on the song's dueling themes.

“I made this video with my good friend Alfy Blue," otta said via email. "For us the video was about just wanting to make something really special, we didn’t think past that really, it ended up being a big patchwork and that is what’s good about it, I think. I started filming this video on my iPhone, out walking in Finland. I edited it on iMovie and when I came back to London and showed Alfy, he was like: we should film more! And inside! He turned his girlfriend’s house into a set while I was working nearby and then we filmed the rest that evening. There was a section of weeks or maybe months where we were just going back and forth with this one laptop trying to edit it - neither of us had ever used any video editing software so it took a long time, but in the end it was worth it. Alfy had been collecting special scraps of papers, drawings and things for a long time, lots of personal stuff. I felt genuinely honoured to have them in there, it felt like a special exchange."

otta's debut EP, after it all blew over, is released January 2020 via [PIAS]/bokkle.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Lara Laeverenz.

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