Michael Vidal was formerly a guitarist for L.A. cult favorites Abe Vigoda. Now that he’s off on his own, Vidal is re-releasing of his 2013 cassette-only album Dream Center as a full-fledged album through Couple Skate. “Dreams (Come Back To Me)” is the lush, disembodied first single from that album, and today we’re premiering its equally quirky, off-the-wall video. Primarily, the visual focuses on Vidal and two rope-dancers, who trip around a rooftop garden and use a nearby full-length mirror to play with perspective. Director Clare Kelly shared an extensive statement regarding her purpose and inspiration for the video and citing her respect for Vidal as an artist:

I made this video because of the brotherly love I feel for Michael. I met him when we were both 17 and he (as the lead singer in Abe Vigoda, before Skeleton) was playing a wedding reception in Silverlake that I crashed. He’s an incredibly sensitive and powerful artist, and to me, his strength lies in his vulnerability. I feel like he’s always looking for “the truth” through his work, in a very earnest way, that sometimes sets him apart from other people, or the current time. He’s kinda old school. A romantic.

I crafted this video for his song “Dreams” as a meditation on some of the themes I hear/see in Michael: mostly the joy that is it is possible to feel in the transubstantiation/breakdown of binary systems. I tried to create a video that out-pictured some of the psychic struggles we all face when considering gender identity, love/power dynamics, the city and the garden: the vortex of Los Angeles also figures in, literally as a backdrop: a city of angels/illusions: it is where ridiculously expensive and often boring large scale Hollywood content is produced, but it is also home to a multitude really amazing and considerate people and artists who often work for free or next to nothing: I hear Michael asking: how do we restore balance in our lives, in our world?

Watch it below.

Dream Center is out 6/9 via Couple Skate Records. Pre-order it here.