The enigmatic rap mystic Jay Electronica still hasn’t found the time to record an album, but he has carved out the room in his schedule to travel around the world to make an experimental film called Into The Light. Jay Elec made the movie with the rap video director Jason Goldwatch, and while the trailer doesn’t suggest much in the way of narrative, it’s full of striking images of Jay visiting Eastern temples. There’s also, for whatever reason, a voice-over about Nikola Tesla. Watch the trailer and read some words from Goldwatch below.

Goldwatch writes:

Jay Electronica is full of mystery, and like a magician, his character lends itself to new ways of seeing things that would seem impossible to many. Several years ago, Jay and I traveled to the other side of the Earth. We left a piece of ourselves there. In exchange, we brought back something entirely new, and the images that follow are a glimpse into that magic for everyone who’s curious.

Traveling across strange lands, we were invited to attend sacred ceremonies of sacrifice and parading celebrations of ancient descent. We trekked together towards the horizon and explored crowded monasteries, solitary mountain top temples, slums of filthy laughing children, and rivers running with blood and flower petals. I documented as Jay walked a river of burning human bodies. We crash landed a helicopter in the Himalayas, and he delivered rice and clean water to a school in a refugee tent city. The result was a collage of movements and emotion.

The experience in itself was a perfect circle. A question with no answers. Full of laughter and tears, but no love story or plot twists. We searched for absolute truth in life, and the only undeniable answer we found was death.

Since returning, I have been working on a film based on this journey called Into The Light. It is experimental in form and best described as a meditation in un-learning. A movement in seeing without watching, hearing without listening, and the brave exploration of spirit. I look forward to sharing this film soon.

(via Pitchfork)

Into The Light is coming next year, via Mass Appeal.