Watch the new video for Tourist x Years & Years collab "Illuminate", exclusively on Best Fit

The clip is fully animated and comes from Nicolas Menard (Nexus studios), who was influenced by Japanese graphic artists such as Yuichi Yokoyama, Sasaki Shun and retro games X and 3D World Runner. Speaking about its creation, Menard says:

"It’s been a real blast to direct Tourist’s 'Illuminate' music video. Not only because it’s such a playful, awesome sounding track, but also because Will was keen to jump straight into the weird abstract universe I’d suggested. It’s also been really fun to play with the idea of translating a poem into Korean; a little metaphor for miscommunication in a relationship. I’m looking forward to seeing whether people dig out those cryptic messages..! Everything was animated frame by frame in Photoshop, with some slight compositing in After Effects, and the editing in Premiere"

Tourist himself added a few words:

"I thought that "to illuminate" was a nice visual metaphor about ending frustration. When it came to visuals, my dream scenario was to animate something for the video, and we were incredibly fortunate to get to work with Nicolas. I implicitly trust his taste and was keen to let him go wherever he wanted with the video. I feel an inherent nervousness when I relinquish control creatively but his interpretation really resonated with me. I keep re-watching the video and seeing things I missed the first time around!”

Tourist is also currently touring on the Annie Mac Presents tour. Check out those dates below, and then enjoy the video.

December

5 - O2 Academy - Bournemouth
6 - O2 Academy - Bristol
13 - Brixton 02 Academy - London

Watch below.

"Illuminate" is available digitally now and drops on 12 January via physical means.