Belfast singer-songwriter Gareth Dunlop released the title track of his upcoming album Animal (out April 22) alongside a stunning, surreal video today.

In the video, Dunlop walks among his furniture – sofas, beds & fireplaces – scattered in a secluded mountain top forest (to the utter confusion of a passerby walking his dog, the crew reports). “Animal” music video director Jamie Neish explains: “The song carried a paradoxical quality to it but also had something that felt inherently tribalistic to me and I guess there was a marriage of all those things to finish the storyboard. The physical scenario was bizarre, bringing living room and bedroom setups into the forest – but it’s a rare chance to make something unusual seem usual, even if it’s just for a few minutes.”

Gareth Dunlop recorded Animal in his own Sycamore Studios just prior to lockdown, where he also produced new records by friends and fellow Northern Irish musicians Foy Vance (Ed Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man Records) and Lee Rogers. All three artists will soon be on tour together this spring, with Dunlop on additional duty as a member of Vance’s live band (tickets here). He’s previously toured with Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, Snow Patrol & Stereophonics. Animal was mixed by Gareth’s frequent collaborator Alastair McMillan, who had also recorded Dunlop’s first studio sessions at Dublin’s esteemed Windmill Lane and has engineered for U2, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.