Between February’s SoKo session, a haunting Patrick Watson clip, and now this pair of Lisa Hannigan performances — worthy, I’d say, of a scene in Richard Linklater’s next Before Sunrise/Sunset installment — it’s clear we can expect great things from the French videographers at Le HibOO. Just when we thought but one Take Away-style version of a Passenger cut would do, Hannigan brings “Little Bird” to a construction site after hours for an eerily poignant take before singing “Knots” above the Seine with the Eiffel Tower glittering among the evening’s backdrop. That’d all be well and good even without perfect sound, but no worries there: audio of each moment was caught right on par with the visuals. The full clip is after the jump:
Lisa Hannigan
Video: Lisa Hannigan, ‘Passenger’ (Southern Souls Session)
Lisa Hannigan’s sophomore set, Passenger, is a fine studio recording, but these tunes pull even harder at the heartstrings live. As proof, here she is performing the mandolin-backed title track alone in a kind of busking scenario for Southern Souls. While Hannigan initially gained notoriety as an integral member of Damien Rice’s band, watching a humble clip like this makes it easy to imagine that her voice would have carried her career to great heights on its own. She also played “Knots” for the session, but having seen that one sung on a boat, let’s take “Passenger” for a spin above.
Lisa Hannigan: “Knots” Video
We’ve seen this new Passenger single performed on a boat, but now “Knots” arrives with some more artistic visuals from director Myles O’Reilly, in which Lisa Hannigan becomes a living painting of the tune when her band pelts “choreographed paint” at her. She told NPR:
The idea for this video was that the instruments would be played by paint (the drums are metallic spray cans, the strings are blue and green from above, the horns are orange) and would be flung at me in accordance with their part in the song.
Watch the one-take result above.