Released August 11, 2016 Recorded 2016 | Format 7"
digital download Label Columbia
popcultur | |
Genre Dance
electronic
electro house
nu-disco Length 3:42 (album version)
6:07 (video version) | ||
"Shelter" is a song by American electronic music producer Porter Robinson and French electronic music producer Madeon. The song was released and uploaded to Madeon's YouTube channel on August 11, 2016. The song was released in the United States on Columbia Records and popcultur as a digital download, and on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Google Play, and SoundCloud.
Contents
Background
"Shelter" was released together with an announcement that Robinson and Leclercq would be touring cities in the US and Canada, dubbed as the "Shelter Live Tour". Robinson confirmed on Twitter that the tour would feature both himself and Madeon playing simultaneously in a live show. The tour began in the fall of 2016.
Madeon stated in a press release, “Both Porter and I started working with people in-person when we started making our respective albums and appreciated how much more collaborative you can get... Our intent was to make music that would reflect our friendship.”
Composition
The track is 3 minutes and 39 seconds long. The lead melody in the track is a processed, chopped-up vocal of a song previously recorded by Robinson during the production of Worlds, featuring Amy Millan. The track takes elements from both artist's debut albums; Porter Robinson's Worlds, and Madeon's Adventure. The chopped up vocals (provided by Madeon for this track) are a signature sound of both artists, as seen in Robinson's single "Flicker", and Madeon's song "You're On" from Adventure.
Music video
On October 14, 2016, Robinson announced on his Twitter account that he had spent over a year collaborating with Japanese animation studio A-1 Pictures on an animated music video for "Shelter". The music video was released on October 18, 2016, on Porter Robinson's YouTube channel, in partnership with Crunchyroll. Based on an original story written by Robinson, the music video is a short film format.
The film follows 17-year-old Rin (voiced by Sachika Misawa) who lives alone inside a futuristic simulation. She maintains control of the simulation and the virtual world around her through a tablet on which she can draw scenes that the world around her will then create in a 3-dimensional environment. She continues on like this for many years, living a peaceful but lonely life. All of a sudden, she experiences scenes before her that she hasn't created. As an invisible observer, Rin witnesses her life as a 7-year-old child living in Tokyo. Through a series of newsreels and images, it is learned that at this time a moon-sized planetary object is on a collision course with earth. Rin's father Shigeru dedicates a large portion of his time to the happiness of his daughter, but in the meantime builds a single-passenger spacecraft with life support for Rin to escape. He also successfully wipes any memory of him or Earth from her mind, instead programming these and a letter from him to come to her later in life. In hope that she would better understand the circumstance once she has matured. Just before the planet makes contact, he connects her to the simulation and launches the ship carrying her into space, where she has been for the past 7 years.
Usage in media
This song was featured as soundtrack in the EA Sports game, FIFA 17.
Reception
Music Times stated in an article that "'Shelter' is what fans of both artists have been hoping for. It manages to bring together the sounds of both artists – Porter Robinson and his synth wizardry found on Worlds and then similar shimmering synths that Madeon has used over the years."