Torii have just released a new music video for single ‘Forward Retreat’, premiered on U.K. platform Under The Radar Mag! You can read the full article here. Much thanks to Dom Gourlay for the kind words. The Dutch national broadcaster 3VOOR12 also did a lovely feature on the video, calling Torii’s album ‘one of their favourite rele`ases of the year’.

Based on a concept by French artist Pauline Bauvin then filmed in France during the annual festival of Gayant in July 2019 by keyboard player Jilles van Kleef and Bauvin, the video for “Forward Retreat” focuses on medieval folklore. Van Kleef takes up the story.

“In Northern France and Belgium folklore, “giants” are figures representing fictional or factual characters. Originating in medieval rituals, the tradition dictates giants being carried by one or more people walking and dancing in the streets during carnivals, parades and processions. Their size varies depending on the region of origin. They usually depict archetypes of the town such as the bourgeois and the peasant or historical figures of local relevance. Each giant has its own history, they are born, they marry, they have children. The music video was filmed in Douai (a commune in Northern France) during the festival of Gayant in July 2019. The legend of Gayant (“giant” in Picard language) dates back to the 16th century. Gayant is one of the oldest giant pageants, starting in 1530 during a procession honouring Saint-Maurand, the protector of Douai. The ancestral cultural practice has been kept alive since then. Every year, for three days, the festival takes place where Gayant and his family composed of the giant’s wife Marie Cagenon and their three children, Jacquot, Fillon, and Binbin, are carried through the city.”