Kevin Bronson on July 5th, 2016

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Frontman Alex Ebert kicks off Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros’ 6 1/2-minute piano romp “Wake Up the Sun” by singing, “I’m tired of God, tired of church / I’m tired of Jesus, I’m trying to serve / No religion / My religion is love.” The spirit of that life-affirming vision is captured is subtle, wonderful ways in director Noaz Deshe’s video for the song, which was filmed in Chimishli and Chisinau in the Eastern European country of Moldova.

It stars Nichita Nagailic and Emmanuela Catana, along with Ioana Ciobanu, Dan Arama, Radu Corlateanu and members of the Chimishli Village Theatre group. Deshe, the Israeli-born, Berlin-based director, had worked with Ebert before, doing the video for “Ruthless” from the last Ima Robot album in 2010. In an interview with Nowness, where the new video premiered, Deshe said that in the region “you find time stands still — communism and religion are still the backdrop of an identity not yet conquered by the east or the west. It seems like any minute chain stores will spring up, but for now it is undefined by the powers that be. I was struck by the beauty of an identity not yet overtaken by what has become all-too familiar — the song struck that chord with me.”

The song appears on Edward Sharpe’s latest album, “PersonA,” released in April. “Wake Up the Sun,” the band’s Orpheo McCord said, “is rooted in ancient rhythmic trance. Through repetition we begin to let go, the chatter in our minds quiet and we become the pulse. Trance music is found in many indigenous cultures around the world. I love that as an ensemble of musicians who grew up on Western pop, we are beginning to integrate some of these tribal elements into our own music.”

||| Watch: The video for “Wake Up the Sun”

||| Live: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros play a free show Saturday night at Week 1 of the Sound in Focus series at the Annenberg Space for Photography.