"Cirrus" is a 2013

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

performed, written and produced by British musician, producer and DJ

Bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the comm ...

. Released as the first single from his fifth studio album ''

The North Borders ''The North Borders'' is the fifth studio album by British musician Bonobo (musician), Bonobo. It was due for release on 1 April 2013, but was released early on 21 March in digital format after a promotional copy was leaked. The album charted a ...

'', the song did not chart but in 2014 the song was featured in a

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

advert. The song premiered on

Giles Peterson Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE (; born 28 September 1964), better known as Gilles Peterson (), is a French broadcaster, DJ, and record label owner. He founded the influential labels Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud, and started his current label Brown ...

BBC Radio 6 BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

show on 19 January 2013. It was released on 1 April 2013 worldwide and on 2 April 2013 in North America.

Composition

"Cirrus" was performed, written and produced by

. The song contains complicated drum patterns and live instrumentation.

Release and reception

The song was released as the first single from his fifth studio album ''

''. It premiered on

Gilles Peterson Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE (; born 28 September 1964), better known as Gilles Peterson (), is a French broadcaster, DJ, and record label owner. He founded the influential labels Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud, and started his current label Brown ...

show on 19 January 2013. The track was released on 1 April 2013 worldwide and on 2 April 2013 in North America. Although the song did not chart, the song was featured in a

advert in 2014. The song has also appeared in ads for

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

's DevArt initiative and on AMC's Halt and Catch Fire The song has been met with positive critical reception. A writer for ''

Fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

'' magazine called the track "a twinkling slice of fairy-light

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

", noting it to be "delicate" while also containing a "slightly steelier edge" that deviates from his style. Jason Grishkoff from Indie Shuffle found the song "pursuing the same sound" of his previous four albums, characterizing it as "absolutely perfect" for

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

rain. Phillip Yung of ''

Earmilk ''EARMILK'', sometimes stylized in all caps, is a North American online music publication. Launched in the late 2000s by Montrey Whittaker, Blake Edwards and Eric DeFazio, ''Earmilk'' publishes on a variety of music genres, often covering hip h ...

'' stated the track "immediately" gives the listener "a spacey organic feel" and found the

slide bass Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

during the middle to give it "much anticipated weight", while Amy Heaton of ''Kaltblut'' magazine wrote the song was "the perfect soundtrack" to come out of hibernation to, calling it "one big loop of elation".

Music video

A music video was created for the song by

Cyriak Cyriak Harris, known mononymously as Cyriak () and his B3ta username Mutated Monty, is an English freelance animator, artist, composer, and author from Brighton. He is known for his Surrealism, surreal and bizarre short web animations with the f ...

on 24 January 2013. The video manipulates footage from ''American Thrift'', a public domain film from 1962 depicting American consumerism. Cyriak borrowed inspiration from

Zbigniew Rybczyński Zbigniew Rybczyński (; born 27 January 1949) is a Polish filmmaker, director, cinematographer, screenwriter, creator of experimental animated films, and multimedia artist who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United Sta ...

's film ''Tango'', and obtained the film through the

Prelinger Archives The Prelinger Archives is a collection of films relating to U.S. cultural history, the evolution of the American landscape, everyday life, and social history. It was in New York City from 1982 to 2002 and is now in San Francisco. History The Arc ...

through the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

, calling it "a goldmine for us video artists." The video is 3:23 in length, and, , has been viewed over 15 million times on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. Critical reception for the video has been positive; Kimber Streams of ''

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...

'' called it "beautifully surreal", whereas Oli Kruscher of DropoutUK said that it "would slot smoothly into

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

's world ndwill take you on a mind-bending trip". Andrew Tarantola of

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' ( ) is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the subsite ''io9'', whic ...

reckoned it would be "what doing

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

with the Beav would be like".

References

{{Authority control 2013 singles Bonobo (musician) songs Ninja Tune singles 2013 songs