Sweet Billy Pilgrim premiere new video for Attacus Atlas

Sweet Billy Pilgrim
(Image credit: Bradley Wainwright at Precarious Productions)

Contemporary prog duo Sweet Billy Pilgrim have premiered their brand new video for Attacus Atlas, which you can watch in full below.

The song is taken from the band's new album, Somapolis, which will be released through Republic of Music on November 4. it's the first new album from multi-instrumentalists Jana Carpenter and Tim Elsenburg since they released Wapentak four years.

"The Attacus Atlas is the worlds largest moth, whose brief and beautiful emergence lasts for just days before it dies," the pair explain. "Our new video, written, directed, edited and animated by our good friend Bradley Wainwright, follows a final journey as life flashes past in a macabre, theatrical dance before lifting off into an endless sky."

The new material was recorded at Elsenburg's house in Buckinghamshire and also in Eastbourne. It saw them collaborating with additional musicians including a one-woman folk choir, a horn section and Brandon Flowers’ drummer, Darren Beckett. Musically, it takes inspiration from Prefab Sprout, Steely Dan and Peter Gabriel, as well as St Vincent, Prince and Jon Hopkins. 

“Over the years – in terms of critical perception – we’ve been edging towards some kind of progressive art-pop thing," adds Elsenburg. "I want Somapolis to be more than that: it feels like a culmination of all our skills, obsessions, neuro-divergance/convergence, insecurities, ambitions and love. So, yes, it’s a concept album, and there’s plenty to unravel for post-lockdown brains, but it also feels a bit more physical. People might not be able to actually dance to it, but for the first time, they might be able to imagine dancing to it.”

Sweet Billy Pilgrim previously released a video for the single Skywriting.

Pre-order Somapolis.

Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.