The Cope - 'True Romance'
The Cope release their debut single and accompaniment dance film, True Romance. Based between Dublin and Berlin, the electronic producers and audio visual artist-duo teeter on the cutting edge between the audio and visual experience.
Known within the music industry for their work behind the scenes, David Anthony Curley (Producer/Director) and Joe Furlong (Session Bassist/Musical Director), announce themselves as The Cope with True Romance dropping August 3rd.
The track and self-proclaimed dance film was, as The Cope explained, “shot on location in Antwerp in collaboration with acclaimed Irish choreographer Zoë Ashe-Browne," an award winning dance artist from Dublin, known for her own work as a dancer in Cyrano, the 2021 film directed by Joe Wright (Darkest Hour, Black Mirror, Anna Karenina, Atonement). This combination of musical and choreographed genius has resulted in the debut release - a true mastery that transcends both art forms in their singular senses.
The Cope commented on the debut film, and how it is "Mirroring the themes of the track,” as “the film is a meditation on love, isolation and control," expressed through the initial tender moments which quickly turn calamitous in time with the track's tempo.
The track builds up for 10 seconds of silence before slowing into a piano chord progression, as the film opens on an extreme singular close up of a woman. This cuts to a wide establishing shot of the location - a barren, concrete, and metal-beamed warehouse which pulls out to reveal two figures crouched on either side of the frame. One, the initial woman, the next, a man, both under soft spotlights. As the electro dream-pop lyrics are layered upon the instrumental track, the male begins to move - jittery, uncertain, alone, as the woman lays flat, and unmoving. The man passionately makes his way over to her lifeless figure, tapping her with his foot, until she wakes, clinging on to his leg.
The two figures begin a soft expression of affection, as the track plays slowly on. Another layer of instrumental depth is added in the form of a 6/8 electronic beat as the figures begin to butt heads - literally, as the tops of their heads push against one another, arms flailing in protest until the woman falls to the ground, staring up at the man… And the lights change.
Exactly half-way through, at the two minute mark, what was day becomes night as the cool-toned warehouse turns red in fluorescent lights. The lyric “This is a love song” plays out as the figure's wide-reaching movements become erratic, the lighting changes from day to night, with extended acts of protest as the night draws on, the woman's jumper rips as she pauses over the man's clawing body. She runs from his blurred, animalistic figure, finally stopping from exhaustion - both physical and mental.
The track once again slows, as he attempts to get her back, but the flashing image of the woman dancing alone in a square-lit space takes over her mind - her thoughts of isolation, and the freedom this will bring her, cannot be erased from her mind as she stares at the man she once loved. With her head cradled in his arms, the track enters its electronic fast-paced chorus. She now dances alone as the scene of the man crawling, and grieving for her is intercut - a stark contrast between the two dancers.
The final scenes of aggression from the past of their relationship and the man's treatment towards her provide an explanation into the woman’s actions, and her isolated dancing feels even more free than it did before as the track plays on. The film ends where it began - an extreme close up of the woman's face, red-lit, free, as two final notes cut the track to an abrupt end. Throughout the film we undergo a whole relationship, making the lyrics, “This is a love song” even more poignant as they are repeated a handful of times.
The only lyrics within the whole track are “You spend your time on our song, / Do you think about what led your life to mine? / I can’t be without you. / You are cool, so cool. / Your endless time on our song, / As you think aloud. / You edge your life from mine, / And I can’t live without you. / You are cool, so cool. / This is a love song.” Simplifying the relationship to its bare necessities - from beginning to end. It is not the average, expected love song, but one of true emotions - the rises and falls of meeting, experiencing, understanding, and eventual destruction - how many relationships progress.
The tracks simplicity but ultimate depth in its condensing of love, mixed with the cinematic artistry of the film combine to create something utterly awe-inspiring, A duo to watch, The Cope are set for an impressive future in the music and art spheres.
Words by Jemma Levine
