It feels like double albums have been a dime a dozen so far in the 2020s, though few of the artists behind these releases have undergone quite as extensive and rigorous a journey as St. Lucia have. Last year’s Fata Morgana: Dawn and Fata Morgana: Dusk slot together impressively well as a hefty composite piece after the duo of Jean-Philip Grobler and Patti Beranek spent nearly a decade pulling these songs together, with work on the record beginning in earnest in 2019. And as if the end result doesn’t already speak for itself, today the band is sharing a nearly hour-long behind-the-scenes look at the collection’s inception with the short film Into the Sky: The Making of Fata Morgana.
Detailing “the wildest ride [they’ve] ever been on as a project,” Grobler introduces the film by noting that Fata Morgana marked St. Lucia’s first truly independent release in terms of recording the album and producing a broad set of visuals. “It’s a bit of an overused phrase, but building the world of Fata Morgana was a true labor of love, and at many points in the process was extremely difficult,” he explains. “It’s become a tradition in this band, though, that we tend to break through things standing in the way of us, and so we managed to push through all the obstacles and deliver more than what we even originally set out to do: a double album with a distinct visual language where every song has its own unique visual.”
Yet the project wasn’t entirely helmed by Grobler and Beranek themselves; instead, they had a tight set of family and friends collaborating with them to bring their vision to fruition. “We were fortunate to be able to capture a lot of the process with the help of my mom, Janine Grobler (who was a documentary filmmaker in South Africa when I was growing up), and Felicia Beranek, Patti’s sister, brought the documentary to life through her keen eye and editing skills,” adds Grobler. “Despite the tough moments and occasional fights, we feel blessed to have been able to do this project with such a lovely and talented group of people who believed in the vision. I have to give a big shoutout here to our director and creative director on the project, Xander Ferreira. He approached us with the idea of creating this visual world when he heard the music, and without his idea we most likely would never have gone on this journey.”
Adds Ferreira: “In building the visual world of Fata Morgana, I learned that nature does not decorate an idea—it tests it upon the greatest canvas. Only the essential survives its scale; and when you are willing to immerse yourself within it, illusion is transformed into magic.”
The band is sharing an exclusive look at the full documentary below. Later this month, they’ll also be embarking on their self-explanatory “Two Sets, No Opener” tour across the East and West coasts. Find dates and tickets for those shows here.
