Nównøis - Like a river
Voice and lyrics by Nównøis (aka Edi Nagy)
Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Color grade,
Music composition and Sound design.
The thrills and spills of the making:
Film and music by No/W/Here (aka Rick Rizzo)
Got a couple of minutes?
Here's a story of friendship, creativity, art and free spirit.
In June 2024, I teamed up with dear friends and artists, Nównøis and Pav, to create an experimental film for Nównøis’ single 'Like a River'. We had talked about collaborating for a long time, not just because they feel like family to me, but also because they are talented artists.
Life, as it often does, had pulled me away from art making, but this project became a reminder of how vital it is to return to that creative space - to lose myself in the process, to be reborn in it. A comeback to my musician and filmmaker roots.
THE 3 ACTS OF the process
Nównøis composed ‘Like a River’ and released it open-source , inviting artists to reinterpret it.
Enter The Third Mind, whose remix transformed the song into something entirely new.
Inspired by this reinvention, my mate Pav envisioned an AI-driven music video.
Once creativity sparks, it takes on a life of its own.
One night, during one of our psychedelic wanders and conversations through the Parkland Walk, Pav and I decided to collaborate - each in equal but opposite ways. As both directors and hands-on artists, we felt that by merging our skills, we could bring something special to life. I would film Edi performing, capturing raw, intuitive footage, while Pav would use it as a rough sketch and guideline to bring AI-generated visuals and motion to life.
But something unexpected happened: our unscripted, freeform footage carried its own quirky beauty. This led Pav to shift his approach: rather than replacing reality with AI, he blended them together, pushing the early limits of AI tools and exploring uncharted territories. The result? A striking fusion of raw imagery and digital experimentation, reshaping artistic boundaries.
THE 4th act
Since my very first listen to Like a River, I had images, moods and sounds forming in my mind: something about a profound ritual, a symbolic process of emergence and constant change. A passage between inner worlds.
As I filmed the performance, those visions solidified.
And so, a new idea emerged: I would create an entirely new version of the song, built solely around Nównøis’ beautiful vocals, following nothing but instinct and emotion. This collaboration felt like the perfect space for each of us to express our singular artistic voices.
Sound
And so I explored sonic landscapes and sculpted what humans might call a piece of music, keeping in mind all the aforementioned inspirations. With the voice as my guiding light, I lost myself in an ever-evolving sound and an arrangement that flows across my mindscapes. Something that could hold more than one emotion and mood.
Using the footage of the performance, I imposed strict rules on myself: editing, compositing, manipulation and grading - nothing more. No AI, no CGI motion - just a raw, (digitally) handcrafted approach. In a world shifting irreversibly into the age of AI, I wanted to leave a mark: one last tribute to the old-school way before we’re fully consumed by the machine.
Intentionally, the look and feel are homemade, sorta artisanal and far from perfection. The raw aesthetic embraces flaws, capturing an unfiltered, tactile essence that feels intimate and real. Every imperfection becomes part of the texture, reinforcing the authenticity of the moment rather than masking it with polish.
Special thanks to YouTube and its horrible compression - keeping the look raw, free of charge.
I will adapt to the future, but I also want to preserve something of the past.
This project became the perfect bridge between these two worlds. Perhaps because, at heart, I am a relentless romantic, and I wanted to celebrate this historical passage by creating a memory of it.
Visually and narratively, I took a different path.
New sound & new frames…
The fusion of these sounds and visuals reflects what Like a River means to me: a journey between loss and empowerment, resilience and acceptance, dreams and reality. Push and pull, rise and fall, changing every day. Reality and time ticking like a clock… or like a bomb.
Realit-ick, tick, tick tick... It’s up to us whether it detonates into infinite fragments, each a world of its own to get lost in.
At a deeply reflective and transformative stage in my life, for this project I embraced the moniker No/W/Here, a phrase that has guided me for some time. I feel it encapsulates the place in my mind I inhabited during this creative journey - a perfect reflection of the film itself. A place of shelter, just for me. A space where I could also tell a piece of my story.
This project was an ideal experience: collaborating with friends, sharing the emotion of creation and immersing myself fully in another world, following my inner visions and letting them lead the storytelling.
A cathartic experience.
And that’s all folks.
Enjoy the journey within. The only one that truly matters.
Nównøis' world
https://www.nownois.com/
Pav's world
https://www.instagram.com/pavpav._pav/
