Their music is forthright, their positivity and hope border on something of a spiritual level… That their songs and ideas don’t come off as New Age-y clap-trap is a testament to 1) how much we (or at least I) want to hear/identify with what they are saying, and 2) the sense of authenticity that surrounds their work.

The outfit, led by songwriter Craig Minowa, have never been ones to shy away from experimental projects and ideas, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise to learn that their new album The Seeker is also a full-blown movie. As the band describe:

“The Seeker” is an experimental art-drama serving as a metaphor for humanity’s search for the meaning of life and the divine. This album and film chronicle the life story of a girl who undergoes great loss at a young age and her life’s journey to find herself. It was written by Cloud Cult, directed and produced by Jeff D. Johnson, and stars Josh Radnor (TV’s How I Met Your Mother) and Alex McKenna (What Women Want).

The first song to be released, ‘No Hell’, sounds like a continuation of everything that makes Cloud Cult so great. A folk song with lush ambient flourishes, the track is an ode to human life and the natural world – the pain, the beauty, the bright white light.

“There’s no use in running
unless you run like heck,
the best things we learn we’ve learned
we learned from the wreck”

You can pre-order The Seeker now as part of a Pledge Music campaign, which includes a number of special prizes over various price levels. The record will be released on the 12th February, but any Pledge Music backers will get an “All Access Pass”, meaning you’ll get a song or chapter of the film every Friday, so you can watch the story unfold gradually.

Photo by Graham Tolbert 

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