Zoon (Zoongide’ewin), the musical project of Daniel Monkman, haas shared another track off his forthcoming Bekka Ma’iingan (Bay-Ka Mo-Een-Gan), with a new single and video for “Manitou.”

The video for “Manitou” offers a cinematic and visceral visual to support the intrinsic struggle Daniel experienced in their youth and channels through the song. Daniel is submerged for the duration of the video treading water, reaching out, and fighting back against drowning and disappearing.

“The video, directed by Trevor Blumas, who said “Monkman’s new song as Zoon and the second track from their upcoming sophomore album Bekka Ma’iingan (out April 28), is both a callback to Monkman’s first project and a new beginning. Though not a shoegaze song by definition, the music’s funereal orchestra and Monkman’s vocals, which seem to come forth from the strings like sea foam from a tidal pool, all work to swath you in a similar way to Bleached Wavves. It’s one of the most threadbare and devastating pieces of music that Monkman has released yet.”

“”Manitou’ is about the group of friends I had growing up in Selkirk Manitoba. We’d run a cross the red bridge and have fires and drink. Our little piece of heaven, until some cops would come and ruin our fun. Running from them was fun though. It was some of the best times of my life. I did notice a very sad element to the whole thing afterwards. Everything was just so normal at the time, I didn’t have anything to really base it off of, but I know now a lot of us were struggling with mental health issues and not properly taken care of, but we took care of each other and some of us got lost along the way, some passed on, I will always remember. Manitou is that feeling I get when I reflect back to those times. I wanted to write music for a film that would never be made.”

for the album, Monkman recruited Owen Pallett to compose sweeping string arrangements, then performed by the FAMES Orchestra, Michael Peter Olsen, who is a regular in Zoon’s live band, played on the new record as did Zoon’s drummer Andrew McLeod (Sunnsetter). Grammy Award winning Mark Lawson mixed the album, and in a burst of creative collaboration, after meeting in Montreal, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo played on album track “Niizh Manidoowig (2 Spirit).”

Zoon
Bekka Ma’iingan
Tracklisting
Paper Bag Records

01. All Around You
02. Brave New World (Without You)
03. Care
04. Dodem
05. Niizh Manidoowig (2 spirit)
06. Awesiinh (A-Way-See)
07. Manitou
08. A Language Disappears
09. Gaagige
10. Ashes in a Vase

Pre-order Bekka Ma’iingan by Zoon HERE