Katie Gately journeys through a landscape of grief in ‘Flow’

Filmmaker Jola Kudela combines dramatic footage with digital effects in the stunning video.

On her latest album, Loom, Katie Gately responds to the tragic loss of her mother to cancer through intricate acts of sonic manipulation. Taking the sounds of howling wolves, screaming peacocks, slapping meat and raging earthquakes, the experimental musician weaves together an audio patchwork on an epic enough scale to approach her emotional turmoil.

“I felt like my world was being shaken,” she explains. “I was losing the person who created me, and it seemed an appropriate time to sample earthquakes.” ‘Flow’ was written from the perspective of her mother confronting her illness, the song’s lyrics exploring grace in the face of extreme suffering.

It was this aspect of the powerful composition that inspired filmmaker Jola Kudela to create the stunning visual accompaniment. “I particularly loved the tone and the subject of Katie’s song”, she explains, “it’s hauntingly beautiful, it’s about how to find peace in your grief and pain, and how to accept it.”

She continues: “As I was visualising the video, I imagined a sort of a journey of a spirit that doesn’t despair after death but continues its movement through the world.”

Just as Katie Gately manipulates sounds, Kudela manipulates dramatic footage of volcanic landscapes, snowy wastelands and dark waters to visualise the Gately’s journey of grief, from the micro detail of a windswept petal to the vast expanse of space.