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CIVIC TV find illuminated companionship from above on ‘black moon’

Photo Credit: Phil Babcock

The moon is the ultimate ally in times of need. It shows up every night, it illuminates a way forward in a time of darkness, and our own relationship with it feels different than everyone else’s, a connection from land to sky that heightens our own sense of being. It can also protect us from ourselves. During the quarantine, the moon was a compass for CIVIC TV, the Toronto project from Lowell Sostomi that marks signing with Flemish Eye Records with today’s release (July 27) of a startling new track called “black moon”. A moody, claustrophobic alternative rock composition, “black moon” is the title track to CIVIC TV’s forthcoming self-produced debut album, out October 22.

“During the long lockdown in Toronto I spent a lot of summer nights wandering around alone in the empty streets,” says Sostomi. “Sometimes I would walk for hours and not see a single person, it really felt like I was the only living person in the city. I started feeling a strong paganistic connection to the moon… It was almost like a combination of awe and companionship. I would often revisit the work I had done in the studio that day in this creepy environment and if it accentuated my mood/surroundings then I knew I was onto something. The song ‘black moon’ probably encapsulates that feeling the most accurately, which is why I decided to make it the album title as well.”

“black moon”, its lower-case styling intentional, arrives with a visual that extends the mood crafted by CIVIC TV, applying its project name via the Toronto-based UHF television station in David Cronenberg’s 1983 science fiction body horror film Videodrome. The video was directed by Cam Hunter.

“Lowell sent me the song during a time when I was doing a lot of walking around Toronto alone at night,” Hunter says. “It was during Covid and everything felt super spooky and intense. Everywhere was abandoned and kind of apocalyptic. I would walk for like and hour and see no one. When I would see another person I would automatically feel weird and suspicious like, “What are you doing out here!?” I wanted to capture some of that suspicion and general anxiety with this video. I also thought it would be extra upsetting seeing another you out there and or being followed [or] chased by yourself. The idea of being unable to escape yourself and ultimately becoming your own undoing seemed to really fit with the whole mood I was in when I listened to the record, especially while walking alone at night.”