Frequent Top Dawg Entertainment collaborator Terrace Martin continues to carve out a space of his own. The all-around badass saxophonist and super producer has just released a short film entitled A Velvet Portrait. The score of the visuals is Martin’s 2016 project Velvet Portraits, which features Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway, Thundercat, Tiffany Gouche and more.
The film tells the tale of a male figure meandering through a life’s journey, looking for his own sense of peace and love. The piece shows the character vacillating between past and present, from the literal unpacking of a life with a woman he loves (or loved) to the burning of her photograph, a symbol of the disintegration of their relationship.
“I’ve always looked at music as being the soundtrack to life,” Martin told The Fader of the film’s inspiration. “Music makes you love — it’s so healing, yet it also has the power to shift you to a dark side as well.”
To bring his project to life, Martin collaborated with the visual collective Aplusfilmz, which has worked with TDE members Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and ScHoolboy Q, among others.
Martin was featured prominently on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 magnum opus To Pimp A Butterfly, and has been featured alongside the rapper during performances ranging from Stephen Colbert’s now-retired Colbert Report to the 2016 Grammy Awards.
