The gorgeous instrumental from Australian post-metal band We Lost The Sea’s ‘A Gallant Gentleman‘ was featured on Ricky Gervais’s After Life — the new six-part comedy drama from the brilliant English comedian — Season 1, Episode 3.
The piece was played as Tony (Ricky Gervais) walks down to the beach with his dog, and remembers back to when he threw water on his late wife as she slept in a beach chair. She screams, jumps up then heads into the ocean shouting “Come in, Tony”.
It continues as Tony sheds his jacket and walks into the ocean fully clothed. He swims out and immerses himself underwater as if he is about to drown himself.
He is stopped by his dog barking frantically, and then rushing into the water after him.
And it is rare I sit down and binge watch a TV series. It is even more unlikely to happen that I know, the minute I have watched the series from end to end, I will be watching it through again. Soon.
But such was the case with Ricky Gervais’s new Netflix series After Life. A six-part series that is so perfect in every way — story, characters, acting, writing, music, comedy, tragedy, the meaning of life — it is not just something you watch once.
The story behind We Lost The Sea’s ‘A Gallant Gentleman‘
As for We Lost The Sea’s ‘A Gallant Gentleman‘, it is from the band’s latest album Departure Songs.
The band explains the song this way:
“A Gallant Gentlemen, the opening track from We Lost The Sea’s third and most adventurous record to date, is a slowly building piece that gives you a just a glimpse of the tumultuous journey to follow. This is the perfect gateway to the heart wrenching ‘Departure Songs.’ The tracks tells the story of Lawrence Oates, an army captain and explorer who walked off into the freezing Antarctic night on a expedition gone wrong, in an attempt to give his life to save the rest of his team. He knew he had become a burden on his friends. He knew their chances of survival would improve without him. So off he walked, alone, into oblivion. An opening track to a record that is steeped so much in the ideas of life, death and hope.”
The track was also written two years after the death by suicide of the band’s vocalist Chris Torpy.
Listen to We Lost The Sea’s ‘A Gallant Gentleman‘ in the video below. It is a live version of the piece performed at Sydney’s Studios 301, and features the high school girls’ choir from Mercy College.
Their album Departure Songs can also be heard in its entirety in the Spotify widget below that.
Related Reading: Listen to Daughter’s ‘Youth‘ from After Life — the Ricky Gervais masterpiece