VIDEO PREMIERE: Tom Cooney - Sinking Feeling

Brisbane singer-songwriter Tom Cooney has returned after a six-year interval between albums with new full-length Futureproof, the arrival of which has been heralded by the introspective, mournful strains of new single Sinking Feeling.

The Music is premiering the song's accompanying video clip, directed by Melbourne photographer Katrin Koenning and, while the central conceit seems simple — a rear shot of an unmoving, unflinching man, stark against a black background, as different objects fly past, and occasionally collide, in slow-motion — it aptly symbolises the underlying emptiness and despair that Cooney has written into its lyrics.

"I wanted to convey what it is to go through the necessities and mundanities of every day life while you are falling apart," he said in a statement. "I didn't want the song to be circumspect or balanced; we do enough of that."

"I think Katrin does visually what I am trying to do sonically," he continued. "She illuminates things to the point that they are barely recognisable as a 'thing' any more. In Sinking Feeling I wanted to get at something big by illuminating small things."

The song's melancholy vibe carries through Cooney's thoughtful, swiftly picked guitar melody and sombre, soulful vocal tones, while the notion of everyday things just passing one by in the wake of such emotional tumult is captured in bold style Koenning's directorial choices.

"Katrin wanted the video to feel like falling through space and never hitting the ground, with familiar objects passing by," Cooney said. "I loved the idea because that’s how it can feel after a trauma — as though you are falling through space and all the familiar things in your life are just floating by. Or, you're floating by them.

"Either way, it doesn't matter which way around if you never hit the ground."

Cooney will launch his third studio album, Futureproof — which is available now — at Brisbane's Junk Bar on Sunday 13 August.

Get your tickets via Oztix, or see theGuide for more information.