Gold Panda - My Father in Hong Kong 1961

Now here comes something that we usually don’t come across a lot — a music video shot in HYPETRAK’s home base, Hong Kong. Gold Panda has chosen this unique city as the (obvious) setting for his new single “My Father in Hong Kong 1961.” Helmed by Ronni Shendar, this dreamy visual captures the mesmerizing spirit and pace of this Asian metropole, featuring shots of the idyllic Aberdeen Harbour as well as impressions from busy Mong Kok. But we let the artist tell the inspiration for this beautiful clip:

The myriad aspects of Hong Kong life, from the mystery of its shoreline to its bustling streets, are captured in the video to Gold Panda’s track “My Father in Hong Kong 1961.” Taken from forthcoming album Half of Where You Live, the follow-up to 2010 debut LP Lucky Shiner, the song makes reference to Derwin “Gold” Panda’s father, who lived in the region when it was under British control. “He was doing military service in HK in the 60s which must have been such a crazy time,” he says. “I think he had to give police support on days when there were pro-communist marches.” The intricate-yet-dreamlike video was directed by Powers’ longtime collaborator, Israeli visual artist Ronni Shendar, whose work has been shown at Festival de Cannes and the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. Both Powers and Shendar are creative immigrants to Berlin, with the former coming from London, England, and his new album—made in his bedroom in the German city using a Akai MPC2000xl sampler and a Roland TR808 drum machine—carries a similarly transient, global-spanning vibe. “After my last album I toured extensively for three years, so I had a headful of this amazing planet we live on,” he says. “Despite its faults the world is actually great, and I wanted to celebrate not only nature but man-made things—like big glass shopping malls in Asia.”