The Live From Utopia Sessions are the brainchild of Yard Act and British director Ja Humby of Molten Jets. The animated set was built with the band’s second album, Where’s My Utopia?’s world in mind, positing a live performance by Yard Act within it, and filmed in 180 degree digital, and utilising Unreal Engine, a pioneering 3D creation tool.

Recordings of “Dream Job” and “A Vineyard For The North” are released today, with the full six-track session going live on 16 May.

Jas Humby on directing the video and working with Yard Act: “James' lyrics are a treasure trove for music video ideas, I had to massively rein it in to create the kind of straight-up live performance they were after. I thought it would be fun to blend this old school DIY set build approach with modern cutting-edge technology. I’d wanted to do a virtual production for a while, but rather than the photoreal environments traditionally used, creating a slapdash animated 2D scene was actually achievable on our budget.

The album cover creator Thomas Robinson was heavily involved, giving up several evenings before the shoot to do bespoke illustrations for both our theatrical paper foreground set by designer Lyndon Ogbourne, and the virtual environment. Our animation team at No Ghost animated the illusions and between them and our Unreal Engine operator, Simon Legrand, we were able to create the world you see the band performing in.”