“There was a moment around 3am when I felt a pure sense of all the elements coming together perfectly,” recalls Dave Ma of shooting the video to Forest Swords’ atmospheric track, “Thor’s Stone.” Filmed overnight in the industrial outskirts of downtown Los Angeles, the promo stars Madrid dancer Guzman Rosado. “I made him dance repeatedly for about eight hours through the night,” says Ma. “There was no one for miles around, just Forest Swords echoing out of a boom box.” The director has made videos for Foals and The Horrors, and his effort for Australian electro duo Flight Facilities’ “Claire de Lune” was shortlisted for the NOWNESS and Le Book’s CONNECTIONS showcase in Paris earlier this year. Today’s collaboration was born after Ma approached the man behind Forest Swords, Matthew Barnes, to describe the vision of a figure coming to life and struggling to gain control over his body that the music inspired in him. The dark and sensuous result marks an incredible few months for the Northwest England-based solo artist, following the widespread acclaim that has garlanded his second album Engravings, recorded over 18 painstaking months. “I’m a perfectionist,” says Barnes of the process. “I spend a long time working on one sound or texture to make sure it's exactly how I want it. It’s like tweaking a key in a door, and then suddenly it unlocks.”