Yeasayer don lab coats in their latest music video, the official clip for Fragrant World closer “Glass of the Microscope.” The psych-rock quartet peer through (duh) microscopes, looking to cure some mysterious epidemic that’s afflicting the entire planet. For added authenticity, director Ruben van Leer filmed in molecular biologist Hans Tanke’s lab at Leiden University, located in the Netherlands. As Wired points out, Leiden is one of the oldest research universities in Europe and the place where 17th century scientist Antoine van Leeuwenhoek developed an early prototype of the microscope.
Another location used in the shoot: the tower of Naturalis, which contains the largest collection of natural history objects in Holland. Normally closed off to the public, the facility holds 20 floors worth of fossils, preserved animals, and other specimens which co-star in the “Glass of the Microscope” video.
“For a moment, among these scientific objects, we felt the entire history of the city,” van Leer told Wired. “We wanted to fuse that history with ideas of an evolutionary future. After technology saves the world — as Silicon Valley wants us to believe — what then?”
Well, then it looks as though the future of humanity depends on four dudes from Brooklyn. To see what Yeasayer find under the microscope, hit the play button above.
