Video: In The Valley Below, ‘Rise’

Zane Roessell on March 26th, 2019

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In The Valley Below (Photo by Jaimie Skriba)

In The Valley Below — the art-rock husband-and-wife duo of Angela Gail and Jeffrey Jacob — have covered a lot of ground in the past seven years. They charted with their single “Peaches” (which made its way onto the “Endless Love” soundtrack), recorded an album and three EPs and finally gave Los Angeles the taillights and moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., to become parents. Despite escaping the bustle of L.A., it appears the couple hasn’t slowed a bit, now having added “filmmakers” to their repertoire. Initially pushing the release off their upcoming sophomore full-length “The Pink Chateau,” the twosome are set to debut their first feature film of the same name as a companion piece. “The Pink Chateau” (the film), co-directed by Gail, will be screened in select theaters throughout the U.S. as an immersive audio and video experience with the band performing the album as a live score.

As a film, “The Pink Chateau” was spurred on by novelist/film director and head of Bright Antenna, Tiffanie Debartolo. With Debartolo’s blessing, Gail had full creative freedom to write and direct, crafting an interconnected series of vignettes paired to the band’s music. Filmed in and around a rural estate in Michigan, “The Pink Chateau” details a young woman’s journey into the countryside with a beautiful stranger and the resulting tale of self-discovery. As Gail describes, “It’s a fantasy of an inviting place where female sexuality is a beautiful curiosity and not a shameful secret.”

Their latest single “Rise” contrasts last year’s “Desperate Dance.” Gone are the panoramic synths bubbling over the full-stop dance-pop; instead, they pare back to a smoldering electric Americana. Lush and anthemic, “Rise” affirms: “Break the glass, leave the shadow / Do tell me who you follow / Feel the weight fall away now.”

||| Watch: The video for “Rise” and “The Pink Chateau” movie trailer.