A little bit more than 4 years ago, i found myself in a bar near Porte de Clignancourt, around a beer with the Spinto Band, a camera in hand and not much in mind. It was the very first essay of a ‘Take Away Show’ - we called it at the time a videocast. ahah.
Started with my friend Chryde as an attempt to offer something a little bit different on internet, as a way to add content to his own website La Blogotheque, but especially as a simple way to spend time with our favourite musicians, pretending to do something professional and important - while the goal was just to be there, in intimacy with music. I wonder if all those great people working for the musicians really believed it was serious…
Anyway, time flies. And while i am typing those words back in the room where i was 4 years ago, our lifes have changed quite a lot, and the amount of sounds and images recorded went into quite insane proportions. I lost control of my memory, left Paris to live on the road, jumped into everyday adventures and forgot sometimes to think about what happened. The need of an archival place was getting more and more important, to offer to all those encounters a nice little place, and basically for myself to use it as a photo album, as a notebook, as a virtual suitcase. Here it is finally:
You will find there more than 200 films, from the past 5 years and more, including some very old works with photos, and some longer formats - all my work is viewable there for free, and from now on all of it will be under Creative Commons. I hope you will like it, don’t hesitate to send feedbacks and ideas to ameliorate it (a research box is on its way…), i will update it continuously, even when films are not online, and sometimes, like the little films i did in Chile and Argentina, i will post some preview versions. Last thing, eternal thanks to Jerome Pidoux who made the website looks amazing.
Apart from that, La Faute des Fleurs, our portrait of Kazuki Tomokawa, is finally finished, in its 2nd version, a bit shorter (70 minutes) than the one we screened at the CPH DOX festival last october - and which won the Sound & Vision award, yes ladies and gentlemen. Here’s the official trailer for the movie, which should be released by the end of the year, after being screened in a few film festivals here and there. Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions about it, but you can find more informations here _ http://kazukitomokawa.com/ _ and there _ http://lafautedesfleurs.com/
That’s it for now. Good energies and travels coming. On my way to Cambodia, spending a month in Phnom Penh for a webfilm project. New adventures. Be well! Yalla.
From La Paz, Bolivia, in quest of Luzmila Carpio, and some other andean sounds. A little post about live music films, their useless aspect, and ways of approaching Croatan in troubled times.
2010 starts in a very very weird way, clues to an instable year to come - praise this. Feels a bit weird writing on a blog. But let’s keep it unsentimental, let’s not make the machine human, it’s a lie. Not losing time on words, more for walks and wanders. Oh yeah thoughts about cinema and music, remembers, again and again, repetitions of the same. Progressive souls, conservative bodies hum. Let’s have a little noise.
HEALTH is one of my favourite live bands. Probably one of the most stunning live acts you can see those days. While thinking about doing something with them, the difficulty of organizing a very last minute show outside the Nouveau Casino, for what was their last show of the tour, made us just stay inside. More to come i hope, but this little 12 minutes edit should represent quite well their energy, and is by far my favourite ‘live stage’ piece. Please listen with headphones, and watch in the dark.
I have done a few films about live music on stage, though, and while never entirely satisfied with the results, tried to reach a certain ‘abstract’ feel, documenting less and less the moment, trying to reach more that ’space’ of images and sounds intricated, as ‘Outer Space‘ once changed my life - what do i see, what do i hear?. The main critic to bring in front of the live films is the poor ambition of its social interaction - the process doesn’t make us different, doesn’t change us. I wrote a lot about it in this blog but the point is still there - what’s left of the experience, apart from a recorded souvenir?
History of live music films gets pretty far back - ‘Jazz on a summer’s day‘ by Bert Stern, first film to really approach live music. The past 50 years have seen their bunch of documents of music on stage, everybody got his favorite, amongst Woodtock, Gimme Shelter, or the often-praised Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense by Jonathan Demme. A few ones tried to carry more than the objective boring aspect of relating a night (Meeting People is Easy, Instrument…). Not my role to make an history of it anyway, ride the wave.
Let’s put it clearly - it’s a dead end. An absolute wrong direction in terms of cinematic feeling and hybridation of creations, which unfortunately too often takes the attention of poor viewers dedicated to the ‘importance’ of the event. We are all conniving hey.
When Mogwai, with whom i already collaborated on a short piece the year before, Adelia I Want to Love (co-directed by Teresa Eggers) asked me to film their NY shows to make a live dvd, the challenge was very exciting though - Mogwai being definitely the band you can not film. Mogwai is sound, Mogwai is emptiness of image, Mogwai is something in your head when you close your eyes. What could we (with co-director and amazing editor Nathanael Le Scouarnec) add to a Mogwai live experience, to such an organic feeling?
The challenge was of course lost before - but the result, ‘BURNING’, a 50min movie to be released soon with a live album of the scottish band, is something i am really happy with - we tried to push the limits of representations to a certain radical point, an almost hypnotic experience. A film to be seen on big screens with big sound for sure. Better than a 3D experience dudes.
While premiering ‘This is Not a Show‘, the REM live movie i made with Jeremiah, in Minneapolis a few months ago, someone asked me why this esthetic, strong black and white, huge contrasts. LOTS of blacks he said.
I guess it’s all about the ‘loss’, the dissimulation of informations, the lack of elements, of details - in a way, to get back to that shadowy relationship with the live act you have when you really go see a show - do you really always open your eyes during the show? or do you try to reach in yourself something else to make a connection?
Where is the memory? What do we need to remember after all?
2010 started in a very sad way - we lost Lhasa. She has been a huge influence on many people around the world for the past ten years, changed many lifes. She had this unique thing in her, deep in her soul - her voice seemed to carry many other souls, many stories untold. She will be forever in hearts and minds of many people. I will be forever grateful to her, David-Etienne and the people in Montreal for the little films we did earlier in 2009. It changed my life to meet such a beautiful person.
2010, we lost Rohmer, Sandro (oh god how i loved him), Bensaid, Mano Solo, Dennis Stock, Jay Reatard, many others already. The world is accelerating, bringing deaths with him.
2010, ok. We know you are the tipping point.
To the andean spirit. Yalla.
It’s been a while, again. Writing on this blog was at first a very exciting process for me (i started it at the end of march), but then i quickly admitted that my own thoughts on images and sounds were more something i wanted to share eyes in the eyes, around a late night drink, than through those screens. The ‘little things’ i make as films fit well those screens, the ideas and life which goes with them, not that much.
Before the end of this year, i wanted to post a last little thing about some films i made in 2009 that not many people saw, before heading to new projects and encounters. I have been on the road for just a year now, since i decided to leave Paris and move to New York, then realized the in between was more my thing. Nomadic as an experience on your own body, everyday as a new adventure, full of new souls, sounds and images. Loving it more and more, not ready to stop. Always keeping in mind, ‘how do we explore the world today?’
Merry Christmas, happy new year, 2010 i believe in you!
I spent quite a good amount of time this year in Montreal, where live some of my favourite people in the world, and this is the main reason of this post today - to just tell them how much i love them. Amongst other great musicians, Lhasa de Sela and Jessie Stein (singer of the Luyas, see below) are persons who taught me a lot in 2009, so praise for them.
It was in may this year that i went to spend a few days with Lhasa in the canadian city. I did a bunch of nice live videos, so here’s a selection of 7 songs from a night in Montreal, a little gig we organized at Patrick Watson’s loft.
Lhasa and my friend David-Etienne who manages her invited me to shoot some stuff prior to the new album release - her third album, the quiet and beautiful ‘Lhasa’. We spent together 5 days, during which i shot a little portrait of her, that i hope to be able to edit someday, when i will get time and/or money. But the core of the project was to film her live with her band, in small intimate settings.
I organized the set in such a way that i would be able to move easily between the audience and the band - a central circle, plus another larger circle, and enough room to move fast and catch all musicians in one shot. All the films were shot only once of course, without any other preparation, and i feel really happy with the result - reaching a certain improvised choreography almost ; )
More than anything, those shows, which marked Lhasa’s first shows in a very long time (we did in fact 2 nights, in 2 different places), blew me by the intensity which she would put in it. No words can really describe what i felt - one of the most amazing performer i have ever seen for sure.
I have been defending the idea of using only one eye, one angle, for a long time now - even if on some occasions i had to use multi-cameras. But this night was a perfect experience for me, as well as for the audience i think - how to disappear with a camera in hand? Maybe by being as much present as possible. Thanks to all the people present there to make this possible, especially Patrick, David-Etienne and Matthieu Parisien for the amazing sound.
I came back to Montreal at the beginning of october, for the POP Montreal festival, once more. Thanks to Patricia Boushel, Sean Michaels and Nora Bouazzouni, we made a little serie of videos on young local bands, produced by Arte Live web and Art TV. I was excited to spend some time with people i didn’t know and wanted to explore the city following them. I am quite happy with the result, especially those 3 videos. Special thanks to Lucas Archambault for the great work on the edit.
The Luyas are probably my favourite band those days, and this video is just a short version of a longer take away show to come. They are fronted by Jessie Stein, que j’aime more than anything. This afternoon we spent together is probably my favourite moment of the past year.
I met for the first time My People Sleeping and Braids for those little films. I especially love the first song by My People Sleeping, as this long one shot was really made in one take, without even knowing how they would sound. I hope you will enjoy!
apologies to Adam and the Amethysts, and the Black Feelings, for not having been able to do something enough good with them. And about Tune Yards, something was shot, we will one day convince her label to let us use those videos…
I also shot an absolutely embarassing video with Phoenix in Paris, and received lots of nice words for that. Weird.
Happy new year to you all, from Chile now.
2010 is gonna be full of surprises again. Yalla.
Intense times. Constantly surrounded by sounds and images, by shows and informations. Where such expressions as Tomokawa’s screams and moves ends up then?
This take away show, one of my favourites, was made around the time we (teresa eggers, gaspar claus, and i, supported by an incredible japanese team) spent with him in march this year. 2 weeks in Tokyo and Osaka, for a bigger project, a 80min documentary: ‘La Faute des Fleurs - a portrait of Kazuki Tomokawa’.
Here’s a story:
August 2008, an email from Japan, a certain Naohito Koike, who tells me about his favorite musician, Kazuki Tomokawa. And of his desire for me to film him.
The months pass, I come across that message again by chance, I realize that I had not finished to read it – in the last line, he notes specifically that he is organizing a concert of this Tomokawa in question in Osaka, in February 2009, and that he wishes to invite me to document the event. We are in December, two months before the show. My friend Gaspar told me some weeks beforehand of this same ‘musician’ that he had just discovered via an experimental blog.
Two months later, Tokyo, invited by the good grace of a single fan. Yes, a fan, an amateur, a guy who liked my work and that of Gaspar, and who wanted to initiate a meeting. A meeting which can change your perspective on cinema and production in the 21st century.
Between time, the idea of the film evolved, it presented itself from then on as a portrait in length, a hour and some, on a character on which the rare elements collected here or there on the net say more or less the same thing: “cult musician, unknown”, “screaming philosopher”, actor and gambler, drinker and painter, intense and poetic. A cinema-oriented person dreams of this man, who, like in the now-famous anecdote, refused to play the role of Captain Yonoi (eventually held by Ryuichi Sakamoto) in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence by Nagisa Oshima, for a strange story of northern accent.
Two weeks in Japan, in the company of Kazuki Tomokawa, change a life. It is not necessary to understand the language (though the language is very poetic in his mouth), but just to experience the man live his daily life – intense, generous, hilarious, a grand life. And radical in his approach to creation, like all the great Japanese musicans these days. This ease with which he comes back to the extreme is constantly doing battle in the body of Tomokawa-san.
This Take Away show, filmed the day after a great show in Osaka, only reveals one side of his personality. I kept the bulk of what I shot for a film that I’m finishing right now, and which will be presented at the CPH DOX festival this November. “La Faute des Fleurs - a portrait of Kazuki Tomokawa”, will recount the lives of the young man from Akita, who left for Tokyo at the end of the 1960s to sell poetry in the streets, under the joint influence of Chuya Nakahara, the Japanese Rimbaud, and of his younger brother Satoru, who killed himself in Osaka during the 1980s. From these proletarian beginnings to his constant combat to deliver more words, of concerts fueled by declarations of war and of worldy love. Between Tokyo and Osaka, a city both cursed and intriguing, that gave us a February evening one of the most beautiful moments of our life.
you can see the 3 parts in an extended version here.
I am finishing those days ‘La Faute des Fleurs’, a new movie, a portrait of this unique character, 80min. Soon somewhere. You can follow the next steps (and we will post soon some outtakes and live sequences from the movie) here: http://kazukitomokawa.com/
Yalla, see you in Barcelona for InEdit next week, or the week after in Copenhagen for CPH DOX. Gooood times coming.
I didn’t post in a long time, didn’t feel the need to maybe, felt also a bit strange by writing on a blog when i have been enough lucky to meet so many people around the world recently, and talk with them. Ideas are always better around a late night drink - well, sometimes.
A quick post then, to celebrate the launch of the Temporary Copenhagen / Temporary Slaraffenland project. A sort of crazy idea which came to my mind once, when talking with the Slaraffenland guys about doing a long take away show version of their next album - definitely inspired by what we did with Chryde and Beirut 2 years ago - 2 years, wow. But with even less money involved - challenge!
In a few words, Temporary Copenhagen is the first experiment/instalment in a new serie documenting local creative scenes around the world, part of the bigger Temporary Areas project that i created a year ago, or something. The idea, which of course will evolve: over a few hours or a few days, bringing local makers to one space, and creating an improvised piece, a unique recording, documenting their own space and society with a collaborative and experimental piece. Plus offering diverse elements on the works of those local and often unknown creators.
In his next steps, this project will not be limited only to music, but should involve other fields as diverse as painting, performance, acting, poetry, dance… All different creations merging into a bigger picture, always with the participation of an audience. Focused on the links between cinema, new technologies, new makers, and society, this serie should expand in various areas around the world over the next 10 years.
The result of all those amazing actions, mostly all shot one night in a flat in Copenhagen, is there: www.temporarycopenhagen.com
And the main piece is this 30 minutes shot, one take, one camera, no cuts boumboum, just the feeling of a night and sounds merging into each other. Amazing bands, amazing people, i have to say. Special thanks to Petter for the incredible sounds and mixes, fantastic job. You can also download on the website only the audio pieces, that will make him happy.
But the first reason why i came to Copenhagen was to do this ‘loooong take away show’ with Slaraffenland. It took us only 12 hours i guess to make it happen, and for me to discover a great city - yeah, cinema as a pretext, right?
The result is this great piece of 40 minutes, edited by Lucas Archambault the great, praise to him. And don’t miss the lovely website made for the occasion: www.temporaryslaraffenland.com. And dont forget to celebrate by getting Slaraffenland’s new album here or here - a gem my friends.
Enjoy the danish sounds. Last thanks, huge, to Rasmus and Nan Na, to Aisha and Hometapes, and to the other amazing people i met, a week in may.
Working hard as usual now, i’m finishing ‘La Faute des Fleurs’, a portrait (70min?) on Kazuki Tomokawa, which will premiere in, tadadam, Copenhagen! for CPH DOX, next month.
My masterpiece, or my death. In between would suck bad.
Yalla.
I love South by Southwest (SXSW), for the extremity of it, for the insane noise, for the unstoppable crowd, for the 1000 concerts a day, for the fact that it’s simply so easy to hate that you should just embrace it. On one side, small or underground music celebrations (ATP, Blogotheque’s Soirees de Poche…), on the other side, SXSW, in between, a certain idea of hell in creation today.
I have to admit it, i went there (two times, 2008 and 2009) each time because i was paid (yes, money, ah) by some big websites to do some shootings there, over 5 days, with bands which are also playing 3 other gigs on the same day. Could have been a nightmare, was a nightmare when i was pressured to shoot an infamous band, but most of the time it was a real fun experience. Even if i have to admit i was far from doing the best work of my life.
But some souvenirs are strong and i wanted to post a serie of those videos for this month of august - when nobody is seriously online, i know, but sxsw tastes like summer.
To start, probably my favourite shoot in austin and one of my fav moment ever in a camera life, a 30 minute one shot/one take, in a house populated by 6 bands (Megafaun, Balmorhea, Murder, Stars Like Fleas, The Physics of Meaning, and Slaraffenland all stars). What we called the Hometapes family house, as most of those bands are very close to the label run by Sara and Adam.
No fake cuts, just one semi-impro shot, one hour to think about it, thirty minutes to shoot it. Thanks to Teresa, Natalie and Sara, who participated in the creation of this piece with the bands and i and a few other people. The best way we could film sxsw in a way. And a film which gave me a lot of new ideas on the social interaction/experiment that a camera could start, but more later.
My second favourite moment was in 2008, when we received (with my production team at the time, Rehab) at our house the fantastic Stars Like Fleas - shot them in 2006 in NY already. I love this band, for many reasons, and i feel guilty i never posted that video before. You can see also there some members of Slaraffenland, as well as the amazing people behind Hometapes, once more.
The Stars like Fleas have been having lots of amazing musicians participating in their adventures, under the captain Shannon Fields - amongst them, Thomas Doveman, Ryan Sawyer, Sam Amidon… All of them were present on that glorious day, in a house like a boat.
I discovered Merril ‘Tune Yards‘ in Montreal, during the Pop festival, and was amazed by her intensity with just a simple ukulele and some loops. I got her contact through Jessie Stein (thx, jessie) of the wonderful Luyas, but we kept missing each other for the whole week in Austin, until on the very last day, she called and told me to meet her at the cult Sam’s BBQ. We just met for 10 minutes, she then had to leave the town. Perfect timing, perfect improvisation in a piece of america.
Ah a little video with Herman Dune in Barton Springs. Would love to write about them but ah, i feel tired, writing isn’t much my stuff. Sorry guys, love you.
This man, David Thomas Broughton, just gave me one of the most amazing moments of my life, when he played at sxsw this year, a show at midnight on the last floor of a weird hotel, me totally high. One of the best shows i have ever seen, so i really think the video isn’t on the same level. At all. I think we should make together a one hour long shot, and it would be great. I should also write a poem for him, but i would fail miserably.
THE CHAP! one of my fav bands for 5 years now, at least ah! This year for their first tour in the US, they kicked the ass of all the little america. Wonderful people, funny morning moment at Low Lows‘ Parker’s house.
Joseph Arthur, hmmm, very interesting character… Loved him, he had such a purity in the way he was, sort of floating around, lost and followed by the worst manager thing ever possible, and the most beautiful musicians’ girlfriend i have ever seen. Intense, on that night got the feeling i convinced someone who was very sceptical at first about playing music in such a situation.
Ah, i think i talked already about them. Love the ending on that one. Yeah, improvised i swear ah!
Feel good those days, dont want to spend too much time writing ideas on a computer, prefer to exchange them around a drink without music in the background, just contemplating around.
Going to the Balkans tomorrow, with Francois Virot, for a film which might end earlier than expected, for some weird legal reasons…!
Yalla, tomorrow night, in Fiume - yes, Fiume/Rijeka, the one.
In the almost middle of the summer, swamped in a long edit on my Tomokawa movie (to be done in, november…), i thought i should share here some recent videos i did here and there, over the past 9 months on the road.
I remember an Akron Family show in Austin, SXSW 2008, ending in the street after 2 hours and a half. The last survivors were rewarded with a crazy dance in the middle of the busiest street during the busiest music festival ever made, jumping and doing some pretty strange screams. Their live shows are still amongst the most beautiful crowds experience you can get, and this little video shot in NY in march try to encapsulate their energy - impossible mission from a cinema point of view, by the way.
I love Nikaido, she is one of the most beautiful musicians i have ever met, and this little video i shot in Osaka in february is amongst my favourite works - probably my best one shot, just contemplating. She also played a gig on that night, and here are two other beautiful songs of the lady from Hiroshima. Nothing special from a filming point of view, but i was crying at the same time and it made it difficult to hold the camera - anyway that should make a beautiful summer, to play late at night outside.
I was travelling around New Zealand recently, and i discovered, while driving a car and playing music from my laptop, something absolutely amazing. It’s in itunes, it’s named ’shuffle button’ and i’m too stupid to ever use it. It just made me re-discover all my music (much to say about the shuffle generation we live on by the way), and especially some amazing tunes from the late Hukwe Zawose, the greatest tanzanian singer of the 20th century.
I was very lucky to film this little video in Tanzania back in november last year, with the help of the great Natalie Johns from Dig For Fire. The Zawose family was incredibly welcoming, and performed for us 4 or 5 songs, this one only delivering a little percentage of what they sounds like. Fantastic people, and so much more to explore.
Ok i will screen some stuff this weekend in Czech Republic at the Summer Film School, if you are around… Then, Barcelona to shoot some new songs with Josh Rouse. Yalla, and good summer.
I just spent 3 weeks travelling in New Zealand. Went there without too many things in mind, needed a break to work on the edit of my Tomokawa movie but finally ended up just driving around the country, from Auckland in the North Island to Queenstown in the South Island. Fantastic country, lovely people constantly teaching my french background about being open-minded, ‘bisounours land’ as my friend Jenny used to say. And that legendary humble attitude - ‘we are like Belgium’ i’ve heard here and there.
I didn’t know much about New Zealand’s music before going there, apart from the fame of Crowded House and a few elements here and there - just met Liam Finn a few weeks ago in Europe, but unfortunately he wasn’t in the country this time.
Scheduled also a ‘Temporary Auckland’ night in the main city of the country, but had to cancel it at the last minute due to many various reasons, and lack of energy - and preparation.
But if Auckland is by far the biggest city, it’s not the most interesting, especially from a cultural point of view. Auckland would make you think about Oakland, or another random american city, while the capital Wellington have this charm of a much more special place, an old european touch in it.
I didn’t have much desire to shoot any music those past weeks, but I met Jess Chambers one night in a party - the first night we spent in Wellington. An after party celebrating the last show of Fly My Pretties - i missed the show for a rugby game… but a great rugby game. I was introduced to Jess by a few people, including the wonderful guitar player Justin Firefly. We exchanged a few words and decided to organize a little shoot for the next week to come. And she planned doing something at her friend (and wonderful painter) Freeman White’s studio.
Wellington is an amazing city - ‘Windy Welly’ makes you think to a little San Francisco or Hong Kong for the beautiful bay surrounded by hills, with small streets packed with bars and musicians and people working for Weta, Peter Jackson’s film company. Most of the people i met (seriously 50%, the other half being musicians) were actually working on Avatar, the next James Cameron movie (you know, the guy who is gonna convince you that 3D movies are a revolution on the viewer’s brain, while it’s just a new dictatorial tool), so it was pretty interesting (makes you humble) to arrive there with my one-man crew and organize this intimate shooting.
Well, the term ‘organization’ is less and less accurate to my work i guess… i didn’t organize anything on that night, just asked Jess to bring a few friends in a nice place - again, pretexting the cinema to launch ideas and energies into a collaborative creative moment.
On the night i met Jess, later when we came back home, Justin Firefly was playing in his room, supposedly ‘for a girl on skype’. It sounded amazing, it was one of his new song, ‘Please’. Justin wasn’t supposed to be there a week later for the shooting, but he postponed his trip to the south island to be part of the sounds of the night. Thanks to him, this ‘Please’, replayed with a bunch of friends, is a definitive highlight to my recent musical months.
The whole night was beautiful, and even if i didn’t do a great job on the filming approach to it, it stays as a nice souvenir of a little trip to Aotearoa, and i hope for you the viewers, a good window to enter a great, diverse and exciting musical scene.
I also spent 3 days on Kapiti Island, which at first was the main reason to my new zealand trip. Following Glenn Colqhoun, Riki Gooch, Richard Nunns and Whirimako Black in their quest of the birds, on this preserved island an hour north from Wellington. The project, for diverse reasons, was too much in its early stage to get anything interesting filmed over a few days, but i spent 2 hours shooting and cutting this little piece with Whirimako Black - the ultimate maori soul singer, ah. Here i should write about the maori culture and its interesting integration in New Zealand nowadays, but well, another time aye.
This little exercise back into cutting (i haven’t cut much in the past 6 months) was so refreshing that it made me, in a way, rethink about the whole process of showing images, of my work over the past weeks, and the certain desire to drift images from sounds as much as possible. It also made the Jess Chambers videos possible, for sure. And thanks to Jenny who gave me such a great help on the sound, and on the edit and everything else.
I am leaving New Zealand now, back in Europe for a while, slowing down on shoots to re-work some edits, long pieces, Mogwai, REM, Tomokawa…
And what a weird moment for protests mixed amongst deaths. Just learned about the disappearance of Pina Bausch. Sadness. Yalla anyway.
New York, end of april. With my friend Nathanael, we had just finished an intense and exhausting live shoot of Mogwai, 3 nights in a row, for a live dvd to come. Noah and the Whale were in town, and free for the night. We remembered a long and very sweet take-away show shot a year before, and thought we could redo something for fun. A few days before we talked about doing a little recording, they promised me new songs, i asked them if they could find a nice loft space to invite a few friends, deal done.
I almost cancelled on the same day, without energy or ideas. After all, things were not much prepared, no money behind such a thing, no pressure, just the pleasure of collaborating on a new piece of music and images - and if the pleasure isn’t there… But i didn’t cancel, and that night now stays in my mind as a sweet beginning for another direction in my film work. Well, i hope!
A few days ago, a dear friend of mine criticized some of my recent films, mostly made for this blog - nice moments, she said, nice images, but she doesn’t get the feeling she is part of the action by watching it, she wasn’t concerned.
Interesting thought on which i agreed mostly - and all i could reply was a sort of very radical critique of the viewer’s position - my recent thoughts made me think that the viewer’s position wasn’t right anymore. I developed a sort of contempt for it - for anything recorded in fact. I know it shouldn’t have such an effect on the ‘final result’, and i guess my goal for the next months will be to find the good balance, in between the action and the recording.
I am in a plane, a long and slow travel which offers me this TIME i need to put some thoughts on this blog. But i won’t try to develop too much my thoughts here, even if each week i feel ready to write this fucking manifesto on new images i have in mind - before starting to get headaches and fears of losing so many friends who would throw words like ‘pretentious’ to me. Ah, anyway it’s not my role, at least not now, and one thing at a time is way enough.
To put it in short, the whole recording process seems more and more absurd, while the images seems just over-abundant. It would be all good if all the image expansion of our net generation was also raising an expansion of thoughts on images today - but there’s been an incredible lack of reflexions on that side for the past few years. I haven’t read much about the subject - and i still think it’s one of the most important thing to deal with those days, for our generation and the next. I feel very obsessed by the ‘why’ of recording - why adding to the amount, to the stream, to the informations?
Constantly makes me think about the psychic space, and the constant attacks from a marketing industry getting more and more insane - you can try to read some of Bernard Stiegler’s books - dunno if any are translated in english though…
And so, after this first one take of 4 new songs (which marks a departure from their original sound and open a beautiful direction for their next album), we took a break, and the guys insisted to maybe, play a few more. Totally agree, but let’s have the ‘audience’ participate a bit more in this one - my favourite song from the first album. We took it to the street, and added to this one 2 or 3 more songs by the river - but i think this one to watch is enough.
I admit it: the recording of it probably doesn’t reach the level of energy and fun from that night. So i mostly agree on the fact that those more recent films are not as good for the viewer as, maybe, some take-away shows were. But for the participants and i, for sure they are way better.
A year before, on the first day i spent with them, we shot a bunch of videos during the SXSW festival, most of them for a quite bad website. Fortunately i kept one for me, the same song, ‘Rocks & Daggers’ here performed with no audience but with the same great energy. I was happy at the time of the intense rhythm of the images, the evolution of the camera always filling the frame as much as possible
Ok, and for the hardcore fans, if you click on this last video, you will have finally spent almost an hour with Noah and the Whale. Lovely kids aren’t they?
A few more little things, not about Noah and the Whale or problems with my own consciousness:
Working on a web project involving new businesses for the 21st century the past week, i’ve been reading this wonderful book by the great Muhammad Yunus, and talking about him around, realized not so many people know about the 2006 peace nobel prize.
So, read this book about one of the most important personality of our generation - i call him Obama from the south, yeah i know it kinda sucks but, ah.
I also had to read this sometimes interesting book by Jacques Attali, ‘Une breve histoire de l’avenir’, in which he develops the 3 steps of the evolution of this century: from hyper-empire, to hyper-conflict, and finally hyper-democracy. Interesting but not very accurate due to his wish to give a ridiculous spectacular twist to it, but more specifically the fact that those 3 schemes are happening at the same time, now, in a much more complex way. The hyper democracy is already there, if you want it, right?
In the same futuristic spirit, you should take the time to watch this great talk by Ray Kurzweil on TED, about his ‘new school for new humans’ in a way. Brilliant.
And last and least, I was reading this morning a very bad book by the over-estimated ‘thinker’ Malcolm Gladwell, so just an advice, don’t lose your time with this pop-philosopher, very inconsistant.
Oh by the way, we found the Constitution of Fiume online. Ahah i think i love to read that it inspired the fascist movement - only them?
Ok, i just arrived in New Zealand, in search of the sounds of the birds. Yalla.
Crazy past weeks, travelling and shooting maybe a little bit too much, without much time to post here, trying to find the good balance. But I want to share some recent of those encounters here, as to introduce people i like to each other.
Wanted to develop some ideas on the ‘recording process’ and some (personal?) problems with it, but i’m gonna take the TIME another day - but it all starts with the question which affects me the most these days: are we still watching? And how?
I was in Copenhagen and Aarhus (Spot Festival) last week, a tremendous time, at first going there to shoot something with my friends from Slaraffenland (which ended up as a big musical tour of the city), plus what i called the first ‘official’ (and last minute) Temporary Area - Temporary Copenhagen. I will develop on this another time as we need to work on a website and edit all the images and sounds, but it made me discover many amazing danish bands - and amongst them, this week’s video with Valby Vokalgruppe.
Formed by Anja Jacobsen (also drummer of Kirsten Ketsjer), the female experimental choir was one of the highlights of my danish trip. They don’t have anything on internet, not even a myspace page, how wonderful this is. But Anja describes it like that: “Valby Vokalgruppe was formed in the spring of 2008, with only four members, and in April 2009 the choir formed its present shape with 7 members. The choir started as a curiosity about what it is possible to do with the voice and with voices together, and an intention to explore this through play and experiments. The inspiration for the compositions comes from different sources such as african pygme singing, Morton Feldman, Dirty Projectors, classical choir and what appears during experiments at our rehearsals. In June 2009 Valby Vokalgruppe will make recordings for their first LP.” Can’t wait to see them again.
A few nights ago in Barcelona, i screened some short films for an hour, invited by the Primavera Sounds Festival. On a (very) small screen, people on stage and (short) talk in between movies. Improvised screening as usual, not knowing what to show, until i double click on a file. Interesting ideas to explore for the next years about this sort of ’screening-performance’ (coming straight from the idea ‘when i go to a concert, i dont get the set list before, why would i when i go to cinema?’), but especially good moment to present some little treasures, to share towards some strangers some recent discoveries that most of the people wouldn’t take attention to while on internet. Like Valby Vokalgruppe. Or Holly.
A few months ago, my friends from Black Cabs were in NY shooting lots of sessions there, before heading to Austin, and told me about this fantastic singer named Holly Miranda. So we met and did this little video, 4 songs in a 17 minute shot. She is there accompanied by the wonderful Marques Toliver, whom i am pretty sure we will hear more about in the next years to come. Holly is gonna release her first album (produced by David Sitek, and it sounds incredible) in a few months. I don’t think i did a very good job on that day from a visual point of view, but it sounds absolutely great and again, i wanted to share something about Holly.
I guess this is why i continue to push rec on the button - to be able to share, to act like a conduit for people i can’t meet directly.
Cinema, or any ‘art’ form, as a starting point, not the final destination hopefully.
Yalla, let’s go to New Zealand for winter, such a good idea.
