Merk’s new single ‘Laps Around the Sun’ is a gorgeous reflective piece, infused with a sense of yearning and constructed around a deceptively simple synth-based framework.
Merk is the work of Auckland, New Zealand artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Mark Perkins who began his career as a touring member of Tom Lark and Fazerdaze.
In this track his voice is the focal point – yearning, raw and melodic with a deep melancholia reflecting on transience of life and the beauty in fleeting moments:
This song is about finding poetry in the mundane, repetitiveness of life. It was written on my birthday, which is also Valentine’s Day. Whether you are waiting for the weekend or celebrating another lap around the sun, or falling in and out of love or doing the dishes there’s beauty to be found in the never-ending repetitions and rhythms of life. By sheer coincidence we ended up filming the video on my birthday too, so it was natural for it to become about that. We made it very guerilla style with a small crew of friends, it felt super wholesome and very meta.
There’s a sense of youthfulness and joy as well in spite of the downbeat tone – captured by the video with its detailing of the minutiae of life and small pleasures as Perkins ramble around the landscapes – often a lonely isolated figure dwarfed by the surroundings:
Completely immersive and utterly cinematic.
The release of this track is accompanied by the announcement of Merk’s debut globally released album ‘Infinite Youth’ due out 9 April 2021 on Humblebrag Records.
You can get ‘Laps Around the Sun’ here and preorder the album here. Merk is also appearing at the digital SXSW 2021.
‘Infinite Youth’ Track List:
- H.N.Y.B
- GOD
- American Parties
- Laps Around the Sun
- Something New
- Canoe Song
- My Love
- Deep Dive
- Happiness
- But She Loves You
- Infinite Youth
