Feature-length music video screening + Q & A with Richard Dawson

To celebrate the release of his new solo album 'The Ruby Cord' via Weird World/Domino on Nov 18, Richard Dawson presents a feature-length music video for the album's 40-minute opening track, a sprawling mood piece entitled 'The Hermit' that tells the story of a loner living in a bucolic dreamworld.

Directed by Bristol filmmaker James Hankins and shot across South-West England in summer 2022, the short film will be shown at several cinemas and art spaces across the UK in the week leading up to the album release, with Q & A sessions after each screening. These events offer the first opportunity to hear music from 'The Ruby Cord' - plus, for selected events, there is the option to buy a screening + album ticket bundle, with the album available to collect in your physical format of choice on the night.

The Hermit is an epic, gently disorienting film of Richard Dawson's 41min track of the same name. Starting from the song's main conceit–an alternate universe as seen by someone waking in the forest of a constructed video game domain–disparate figures are shown in situations by turns mundane, educational, industrial and fantastical, blurring lines between realities virtual and actual. Dawson plays the loner protagonist, observing on the margins. Is it the past, or a near-future resembling mythic Albion? What happens if there’s a glitch in the virtual world, turning a pastoral scene into one of dread? Are we witnessing the end of days, or an unsettlingly close simulation?

Trailer here: https://youtu.be/oAFzmT2Wl7k

Ticket options:

Screening ticket only: £10 https://beatdownrecords.org/products/richard-dawson-star-shadow-screening-q-a-ticket

'The Ruby Cord' album CD + ticket: £19 https://beatdownrecords.org/products/richard-dawson-the-ruby-cord-cd-ticket

LP + ticket: £32 https://beatdownrecords.org/products/richard-dawson-the-ruby-cord-lp-ticket

Limited Edition coloured vinyl LP + ticket: £36 https://beatdownrecords.org/products/richard-dawson-the-ruby-cord-lp-indies-only-sky-blue-vinyl-ticket