Depeche Mode are back, with a surprise: Heaven, first single from forthcoming album Delta Machine, is a mighty pop tune, and Timothy Saccenti’s video is a straight-ahead performance video of the band, shot appropriately enough in an abandoned church in New Orleans, embellished with live projections and imagery that touch upon a voodoo theme.

The video followed the band’s collaboration with Tim on another project towards the end of last year – effectively a teaser for the new album. “Depeche Mode approached me to direct the video Heaven” as a continuation of the campaign we began with our studio film for their track Angel,” Tim explains. “The album is a mix of blues and electronics, and that was my starting point for the concept. This was to be the band’s first proper performance video in ages so the location was very important.”

Tim reveals that the band felt that voodoo was at the root of the songs on the album, where “blues meet Kraftwerk” – hence the album being called Delta Machine. “In order to delve into the voodoo vibe we travelled to New Orleans to soak it up and find a suitable locale… it in the end being a beautiful abandoned church,” he says.

“After studying various variations on the Heaven theme, I came up with a concept that mixed a symbolic story with hints of voodoo and imagery, keeping in mind the band’s rich visual history, but updating it with my own twist.”

Depeche Mode
Heaven (Columbia)
Director: Timothy Saccenti
Executive Producer: Jennifer Heath
Production company: Radical media
Producer: Jason Baum
DP: Ivan Abel
Projection design: Ivan Safrin
Editor: Dayn Williams
Production designer: Sherri Korhonen, Andrea Huelse
Mask designer: symbols + rituals
Makeup: Andrea Helgadottir
Projection designer: Ivan Safrin
Stylist: Mark Holmes
VFX lead: Russell Mack
Flame, Colorist: Alvin Cruz
VFX:Dan Giraldo
Matte Painter: Ram Bhat
Commissioner: Saul Levitz