The London Suede have released Autofiction: A Short Film, a new creative project and visual companion piece to their forthcoming ninth studio album, Autofiction.

Bookended by album opener ‘She Still Leads Me On’ and new single ‘15 Again’, Autofiction: A Short Film is a modern, gritty spectacle told through the lens of two protagonists at a pivotal emotional crossroads.

Directed by Katie Lambert (MrMr Films) and created in collaboration with The London Suede, the production explores the complexities of memory, the perceived truth, communication and anxiety in human relationships. Themes at the core of The London Suede’s new album Autofiction, which, as its title suggests, is one of Brett Anderson’s most personal records yet.

Speaking about Autofiction: A Short Film, The London Suede bass player Mat Osman said:

“With the Autofiction short film we didn’t want to make a normal performance video – instead we wanted to make a short film that overlapped at a The London Suede gig, with the band as just a minor part of the film, rather than at the centre. MrMr then came up with the idea of taking a crossroad in a couple’s life and playing with it in odd ways – moving backwards and forwards in time, seeing it through different sets of eyes, seeing their hopes and fears and memories all jumbled up too. Autofiction: A Short Film takes some of the themes of the album: youth and ageing, love and loss, fear and joy – sees them play out in the story of Chris and Hannah.”

Director Katie Lambert, MrMr, added:

“Autofiction: A Short Film is about that moment in a relationship when it’s crunch time. The moment when you’re at a certain age and forever feels incredibly close. When you’re not sure if you’re with the one, or if you could find another one, or if that’s a crap societal construction anyway.

We loved the idea of creating a film which centres around a real-time night, and a gig – but that actually explores past, present and future all at once. Which is a mush and a mess of feelings; because isn’t that the memory soup we’re constantly swimming in anyway? This film felt like a true collaboration. Hannah and Chris have so much of both of us in them, this film stands as an Autofiction not just of The London Suede’s beautiful new music, but also of MrMr.”

Autofiction: A Short Film is The London Suede’s first short film. The latest in a lineage of visual collaborations that can be traced back to The London Suede’s most formative years. From their 1993 concert film made with Derek Jarman live at London’s Clapham Grand, to 2015’s Night Thoughts, where The London Suede debuted the album live in its entirety accompanying their own silent film directed by Roger Sargent, prompting The Telegraph to pose the question, “Have Suede reinvented the album?”

Autofiction is The London Suede’s ninth studio LP and sees the band decided to go back to basics. “Autofiction is our punk record,” Brett Anderson says. “No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess.”