Video: Sylvan Esso, ‘Rooftop Dancing’

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Sylvan Esso (Photo by Shervin Lainez)

North Carolina electronic pop duo Sylvan Esso’s new single and accompanying video, “Rooftop Dancing” displays immense empathy for today’s city dwellers.

The video for “Rooftop Dancing” showcases an intimate depiction of New York City’s solitude this summer. With the current events of the COVID-19 pandemic, residents from cities all over the world should know that this song is for you. The video, however, isn’t about loneliness or isolation, rather it looks at the situation in a glass-half full lens. In the video, you are introduced to a number of city folk enjoying every ounce of their outdoor freedom, from rollerblading and skateboarding to stretching in the park and rooftop dancing. Perhaps this video is a reminder to enjoy what you can and that this too shall pass.

Sylvan Esso worked with New York City street photographer and filmmaker Cheryl Dunn, who said that the song “reflects the social climate of [New York] right now, with its historical resilience to re-invent — to create new things from the discarded, to take back the streets, to not dwell on what you can’t do but to get excited about what you can do … like riding bikes en masse, making guerrilla art shows by the river, making more art and music. And, yes, dancing on the rooftops!”

“Rooftop Dancing” is the second single from “Free Love,” the third full-length from the duo of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn and the follow-up to their Grammy-nominated 2017 album “What Now.”

The duo says, “It’s a record about being increasingly terrified of the world around you and looking inward to remember all the times when loving other people seemed so easy, so that you can find your way back to that place.” The record was written and recorded in the duo’s own studio, in the woods of North Carolina.

Following the announcement of “Free Love” in July, the duo released single “Ferris Wheel.” Sylvan Esso says Ferris Wheel” is about discovering your power and awkwardly figuring out how to wield it.” This track kicks and has you nodding your head along with every beat.

If there is one good thing to come of this pandemic, it’s the music reminding us to carry on, and Sylvan Esso has taken the dire situation and used it as creative inspiration.

“Free Love” is out Sept. 25 via Loma Vista Recordings.

||| Watch: The video for “Rooftop Dancing”

||| Also: Watch the video for “Ferris Wheel”