Massive Attack’s haunting new video for Come Near Me sees Kosovar actress Arta Dobroshi and British actor Jonathan Aris in an ill-fated stand-off.

Written and directed by Ed Morris, this has the sense of mystery and inevitable doom that's completely characteristic of the band and their videos. The tension is there from the start, as the couple face each other, a few feet apart, within their home. Then as he advances upon her, she retreats. And this action simply goes on, from intereior to the streets outside, thorugh tunnels, woods and finally to the sea. And we know what will happen next.

Shot in a single day in various locations around Hove on the English south coast, afficianodos of Massive Attack's body of work will note the references to the band's history, most obviously in the audio snippet of Unfinished Sympathy in arguably the video's most sinister sequence. And there are also echoes in the concept of one of the classic Massive videos of the 1990s, Walter Stern's video for Angel. 

Post on the video took place at The Mill in London, and as 2D Artist Nina Mosand explains, “This was a lovely project to work on, as Ed [Morris] has an eye for beautiful framing. The edit of the promo has a beat and suspense that makes you want to find out what's going to happen next. All of the effects the team added were seamless and hidden, with the intent of maintaining this element of suspense and tension.

"The biggest shot we worked on was the overhead road-crossing scene. We had to ensure our two hero characters appeared to be in the middle of the road by timing the cars from different plates so that that it felt as though they were actually there, making the cars drive behind them and matching the movement of her skirt to that of the cars."