Premiere: Coma Rossi Offer Ghostly Video for ‘Oblivion’ from New Album ‘Void’
Bengaluru-origin, Germany/U.K. band take to post-rock influenced by bands like Cult of Luna
Germany/U.K. progressive rock band Coma Rossi. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Memories are discarded and exorcized in prog/post-rock band Coma Rossi’s video for “Oblivion,” taken off their recently released second album Void.
Directed by filmmaker Shehrazad Amin, the monochrome music video features a protagonist in a seemingly abandoned home, sifting through memories before finally taking a white wedding dress into a nearby lake. Bengaluru-origin founder of Coma Rossi Gaurav Govilkar – who moved to Dusseldorf, Germany in 2023 – said he met Amin at a metal show featuring the band Amenra in Bochum in December last year.
Govilkar says, “During the time, I was in the last stage of recording vocals, and I am glad that the timing was just right for Shehrazad to work on the artwork. I was extremely happy with how it came out to be. A couple of months after, we started discussing the video for Oblivion. My references to her included scenes from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Nostalghia and David Lowery’s film A Ghost Story.”
The song – which vocalist, songwriter and guitarist Govilkar describes as one about watching “how time passes you by” – draws parallels between “tides, death and black holes,” according to the founder member.
After moving to Germany for professional reasons, Govilkar took it upon himself to change a lot about Coma Rossi a few years after the release of their 2018 debut self-titled album. It was in February 2022 that previous members had exited the band. Around June, Govilkar began looking for drummers online and found Diane Galen from the U.K., who is now part of Coma Rossi. “Diane brought in a completely fresh, and an angular approach to drums on the early demos, which really surprised me and I felt like the bar was raised quite high with her being involved,” Govilkar says.
It was also in 2022 that Coma Rossi’s sound began to change from their spacey prog rock style, informed by Govilkar’s discovery of post-metal bands like Alcest and Cult Of Luna. Govilkar, however, adds, “Void uncovers sensibilities in this region but also inherits my love for Pink Floyd and progressive rock in the songwriting.”
Along with a heavier sound, Govilkar was also taking on vocal duties for the first time. It sounds strikingly different to their self-titled album and the reception for Void has been “quite divided” according to the artist. “Some haven’t much appreciated the change of sound and the direction than the first album, but a lot of people also have found it quite refreshing. Being an outlier in genres (progressive rock and post-rock) might be a risky thing, but getting a few positive reviews from both sides has been quite gratifying,” he adds.
Coma Rossi will head out on their first tour to promote Void this October, going through the U.K. It’s a long time coming for the band, considering they had a U.K. tour locked in for 2020, which was nixed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Govilkar and Galen will head out to perform six shows across the U.K. starting Oct. 4 in Nottingham and ending on Oct. 10 in London. Stops include Summer’s End Festival in Chepstow on Oct. 5, in Brighton on Oct. 6, Manchester on Oct. 8 and Leicester on Oct. 9.
