Interview with Ryan Martin from Dais Records
by John Wisniewski.
John: When did you form Dais Records and what did you wish to accomplish?
Ryan: We formed Dais in August of 2007 when Gibby woke me up with a phone call one morning saying that he thought me and him should pool our resources and start a record label that was a split between reissues and new music concerning releases we felt were neglected and/or forgotten. I was half asleep and agreed to everything he said including the name Dais that he had come up with. Later in the day, when I was more awake, we spoke and Gibby already had the ball rolling.
Prior to that time, it was uncommon for a record label to do both reissues and new music under the same roof. You were either a reissue label or you put out new music…or you have a label for new music and a sub-label imprint to do your reissues. It was all very compartmentalized. We thought if you curate it right and kept a very strict aesthetic that was extremely personal to mine and Gibby’s tastes and ideas, then you could mix it all together. It seems to have worked out.
Gibby: Dais formed in August of 2007. Our goal from the beginning was to work together to find and re-release lost and influential recordings, and release new projects – new artists – that fit our sound and aesthetic. Our first project was the Early Worm LP, followed immediately by several new artists – immediately we began working on more archival projects, focusing on acts like Deviation Social, COUM Transmissions, and the Annabelle’s Garden double LP, which took 4 years to compile and finish.
John: Could you tell us about upcoming and current projects that Dais is releasing – any that you may be really excited about?
Ryan: Right now we’re pretty thrilled about the new Scout Paré-Phillips album that came out this past February. She’s been a friend of the label for a long time and has been an amazing experience working with her. In March, we are releasing the debut album by Them Are Us Too which has been receiving quite a bit of praise. After that we have the final posthumous Sightings album; new albums by Drab Majesty, High-Functioning Flesh, Drew McDowall, Cold Showers, Drekka, Youth Code and Aaron Dilloway. Working on some incredible reissues by 80’s industrial outfit Hunting Lodge and shoegaze legends Spahn Ranch.
Gibby: Over the last year we have begun focusing very hard on NYC and Los Angeles-based new artists, and our upcoming schedule for 2015 and 2016 reflects that. Them Are Us Too, from Santa Cruz – we are VERY excited about, as we’ve been working with them on this LP for over a year, since hearing their demo nearly 2 years ago… compared heavily to the early 4AD catalog. Drab Majesty, High Functioning Flesh, Youth Code, Cold Showers, and Harassor all represent more of our Los Angeles lineup. On the east coast, we have the talented Scout Paré-Phillips, and Drew McDowall – and in the midwest we work with Drekka and Aaron Dilloway. On top of all of these current artists we continue to focus at least 1/3 of our production schedule to archival and re-release work.
John: Could you tell about the William S..Burroughs album released by Dais records? How did this project come about?
Ryan: It came about because I have worked with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge for a number of years and Genesis originally released this Burroughs album, Nothing Here Now but the Recordings, in 1981 as the final release on Industrial Records. For some unknown reason, it never was reissued ever again and given that it was one of my all time favorite album and massively influential, I ran the idea past Gibby and we both agreed to pursue to the reissue idea. Genesis helped by connecting us with James Grauerholz, who is the executor of the Burroughs Estate.
James was a massive help with his access to all the materials and knowledge about the ins and outs of Burroughs work. We spent the past year piecing everything together and pulled together a much needed reissue of a very important album.
John: Ryan and Gibby, could you each provide some information on the Deviation Social recordings?
Ryan: The project was called Deviation Social and was around in San Francisco / Bay Area from 1981 until roughly 1986. It was the avant-garde industrial noise act of artist Art Injeyan that only released a handful of cassettes and one single 7” in the early 80’s then fell into obscurity. Deviation Social was one of the first projects me and Gibby discussed trying to track down to reissue. So far we have reissued 3 LP’s worth of material, the most recent being the project’s 1981 demo, of which only 25 cassette copies ever existed. We did a limited run of 250 copies.
Gibby: I first came across the Deviation Social 7″ when I was in college in 1996 at a small record store on Commonwealth Avenue called “In Your Ear”. When I saw the cover of the 7″ I was immediately drawn to the imagery and bought it on the spot. Years later, in 2007 when we started Dais, we both agreed it would be a great record to try to find out more about, because the inside of the record itself had very little information. The contact addresses of course were long gone, and the only connection we could identify was that in the thank you list Monte Cazazza was mentioned. So, we spoke to Genesis who put us in touch with Monte, and after a long few weeks we finally contacted Art Injeyan from Deviation Social and began working together. We’ve already released 2 LPs of his material, but the latest, as Ryan mentioned is the limited run of his extremely rare demo cassette.
John: Could you tell us Ryan and Gibby about your artist Tor Lundvall? Why did you become interested in his music?
Ryan: Tor Lundvall is a bit of an enigma. Very reclusive yet fairly accessible. One of those artists that you can talk to every day for hours yet I can’t tell you much about him, he’s a mystery even to me and Gibby. Mainly a fine art painter by trade, he does compose ambient music within his visual arts background. Everything he does is intertwined with the other. Sort of “exists” in his own world out in Eastern Long Island, NY.
Me and Gibby both discovered him through the World Serpent channels in the late 90’s, early 00’s. The first record of his I picked up was Ice (because I loved the cover and his name) and then sort of rediscovered him when Last Light came out in 2004. I know Gibby was corresponding with him before we started the label years back.
Gibby: I first discovered Tor Lundvall in 1996, when my friend Michael Anderson of Bluesanct/Drekka sent me an art magazine called “On: The World and Everything In It.” The magazine had interviews with Tibet, among others, and came with a CD featuring Tony Wakeford, Andrew King, and Tor Lundvall. The Tor track was “Ghost Years” off of his first album. I began writing to him via email, and on and off again through the early 00’s. It wasn’t until 2007 or 2008 when I bought a painting from him and invited him to join Ryan and I on Dais, and he agreed! Since then we’ve been his exclusive label for his wonderful output, which is humbling to me especially because I’ve admired him and his work for so long.
Why I became interested in his music is simply because to me, it’s quite unique – singular. If you look at his paintings they really match his music, and vice versa. He is such a talented well-rounded artist and has a very acute vision both visually and with the sounds he creates. Something about his compositions makes me feel very nostalgic, and as I grew up in Long Island, near where Tor resides, much of his music strikes a chord with me, and I remember my childhood, winters by the harbor, forests in the fall, etc. It’s extraordinarily “visual” music, as you’d expect.
John: Ryan and Gibby, when did you meet Genesis P-Orridge?
Ryan: I met Genesis Breyer P-Orridge about 11 years ago by originally helping to catalog and organize he/r archive that was being acquired by the Tate Modern. After that acquisition finally wrapped up around late 2007/early 2008, Genesis had asked that I stay on and become her personal manager. Given the close friendship and personal rapport we had developed over the years, I said yes and still run day to day management for Genesis. The first rumblings of Dais Records came out conversations with me and Gibby when I had uncovered vast amounts of unreleased recordings in Gen’s archives that could use a home, Genesis had stated “why don’t you start a label”, Gibby called me a few days later after I mentioned these recording in passing and here we are.
Gibby: I met Genesis in the early 00’s at several of the first PTV3 events, and later with Ryan during the birth of Dais Records. Gen has since become Dais family, and has been exceedingly supportive of the label.
John: Interesting back catalogue release of Tony Conrad with Genesis. Maybe you could tell us about this collaboration?
Ryan: The collaboration came about due to the suggestion of filmmaker Marie Losier. She had previously made a short film about Tony Conrad entitled Dreaminimalist. At the time she was wrapping up production on her full length film about Genesis & Jackie Breyer P-Orridge.
She introduced both of them and suggested they play a concert in Brooklyn through Issue Project Room. The shows commenced during two days. Bruce Tovsky, producer for Liquid Liquid, helped to record the live sets and we edited together a full length LP for release to celebrate the collaboration.
——previous issues:—–
ANTHROPROPHH’s U.F.O
artist: Anthroprophh – album: U.F.O – label: Cardinal Fuzz
By Lars Rosenblum Sorgenfrei.
Anthroprophh, on their new release ‘U.F.O.’, have apparently done a survey of sites in the U.K. where U.F.O. sightings have occurred. “14.10.54 Southend on Sea” starts off with a woman’s voice on a distant radio transmission and is replete with eerie noises. “17.7.55 Bexleyheath” comes off as a perhaps not so undertoned piece reminescent of Mono or Godspeed You! Black Emperor but with a psych flavour, interspersed with some Sonic Youthy noise.
Like the Spacemen 3 once infamously said, they made music on drugs to take drugs too. Anthroprophh seems to be in the same league. “13.8.56 Lakenheath” sounds like the soundtrack to something unsavoury. “4.4.57 West Freugh” shifts into primal rhythms for a while before (de)generating back into outright spaciness. Starting out with guitar chimes, parts of “19.5.65 Warminster” sound like the apocalypse is coming. This theme continues on to the B side with “28.4.67 Brixham.” Suddenly they shift into a long passage which reminds me of Primus – just a bit more psychedelic. “26.10.67 Owermoigne” is downright interplanetary, as is “23.1.74 Berwyn Mountain.” Chaos captured. If you are into space rock, this album is definitely worth purchasing.
https://captcharecords.bandcamp.com/album/u-f-o
CARLA BOZULICH – BOY
by Lars Rosenblum Sorgenfrei.
Boy, Carla BOZULICH’s latest record is raw, vicious, stripped down rock. Sure it is jagged, mind-warped rock, but is rock all the same. But don’t get the wrong idea, most of these songs snur along at a slow tempo. Twisted lullabies for a postmodern soul. Apparently it is her self-proclaimed ‘pop album.’
“One Hard Man” mixes in some industrial noises. “Drowned to the Light” is almost symphonic in its arrangement. Awkward drums start off the fable of “Don’t Follow Me.” No more, no more… BOZULICH sounds almost aloof when she sings she’s “Gonna Stop Killing” today, including the beautiful instrumental interlude. “Deeper than the Well” is practically a blues number, what with Carla’s mumbling and everything, and sounding downright fierce when she sings “I just want to fuck up the whole world.” “Danceland” is as close to pop as she gets, where “it’s always night” with a disco beat. Or, come to think of it, maybe “Lazy Crossboner” is the pop contender. “What is It Baby” invokes BOZULICH’s earlier work with The Geraldine Fibbers by stepping into country territory. “Number X” is a haunting finale, leaving you a sense of “Wow, the record is over!”
If you are a fan of Carla’s earlier work, with Evangelista or Scarnella for example, or that of Thalia ZEDEK or Ensemble Orlando, then this record is for you. But regardless of whether you are familiar or not, this is an ear-catching record worth checking out.
—————
http://cstrecords.com/cst102/
“If Boy emerged from the oeuvre of a broadsheet-friendly icon such as Nick Cave, Patti Smith or Tom Waits it would be lauded as an uncompromising work of genius.” – SUNDAY TIMES
“You’re in her world now, so look alive. A glorious achievement. Long may she run.” – PASTE (9.3 rating)
“A landscape where Tom Waits and Michael Gira enjoy critical tongue-baths ought to make room for Carla.” – NME
“Carla Bozulich’s new and perhaps most essential record…Boy is a living, gasping, impassioned/dispassionate grapple with existence.” – TINY MIX TAPES (4.5 stars)
“On Boy, Bozulich has pulled the word ‘pop’ back from the abyss of meaninglessness. Her most accessible record in some time, though her use of recognizable genre, melody, rhythm, and harmony, shatters conventional notions. Searing, raw and lusty, tender, open and vulnerable.” – ALLMUSIC (4.5 stars)
ABOUT THE RECORD: (information from Constellation Record’s release page):
DESCRIPTION
Carla Bozulich is an art-punk heroine. Time and again she has headed up bands that sound like nothing else and arguably stake out genres unto themselves: the bent agit-prop of Ethyl Meatplow; the ferocious roots-tinged epic rock of The Geraldine Fibbers; the vocal-driven sound-art of Scarnella and Evangelista; her large-scale performances including the ongoing Eyes For Ears series. Her first “solo” record, the 2003 album-length cover of Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger, was rightly hailed as a masterpiece of reinterpretation and recontextualisation. Her first album for Constellation was 2006’s Evangelista, after which Bozulich adopted the Evangelista moniker for subsequent work, and released three more albums between 2008-2011. She has set aside Evangelista for now, to focus on the songs that form Boy, her third record under her own name.
Boy is Carla’s self-proclaimed “pop record” and that claim makes perfect sense, framed within the context of her unique musical career of experimentation, exposition and deconstruction. Boy is a refreshing and much-needed reminder of what pop – as an oblique angle, influence, and intent – can do in the hands of a ferociously commanding singer/lyricist who has cut her teeth on genre-bending, genre–blending, and DIY aesthetics. Bozulich says she was “resuscitated” in her teenage years by punk rock, and then “destroyed, in a good way” by people re-inventing the idea of how music works. Here is a batch of ten songs that clock in at 3-5 minutes each, mostly hewing to recognizable structures of verse, chorus and bridge, but full of destabilizing accents and strategies, and nothing that could read as winking irony, gloss or mere effect/affect. The songs are grounded by hooks and melodies, delivered by the singing itself, with the underlying instrumentation and arrangements always in the service of Carla’s voice and lyrics – in that respect, there is a strong through-line from the Evangelista albums. ButBoy sharpens and focuses each song’s intent and structure; unlike most of the Evangelista work, this new album, apart from a song or two, would not be mistaken for sound art, dark ambient, or quasi-Industrial music.
While Bozulich wrote most of it, played the majority of the instruments and made the album artwork, the album’s creation was aided, abetted and sometimes rescued by the input of John Eichenseer (aka JHNO). The duo traveled and played together all over North America, Europe, South America and India – with a particularly fruitful burst of writing on a tiny island off the coast of Istanbul. They joined the Italian drummer Andrea Belfi in Berlin to record with his impeccable rhythmic support. The songwriting reflects a life of travel – remaining purposefully uprooted and nomadic, living without ever really unpacking that single bag – and guided by some of Bozulich’s most perceptive, honest and sometimes venomous lyrics.
Boy unfurls a beautiful, unsettling narrative wrung from an artistic life of unflinching creative experience, commitment, courage and learning. It is sharp, supple, satisfying and generous.
Thanks for listening.
Release date: 04 March 2014
Running time: 42:10
PACKAGING NOTES
CD comes in a custom gatefold jacket printed on thick 24pt. paperboard with a printed CD dust sleeve. LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a heavyweight jacket with black poly-lined audiophile dust sleeve, credit insert, pull-out art poster and download code for 320 kbps MP3 copy of the album.
TRACKLIST
1. Ain’t No Grave
2. One Hard Man
3. Drowned To The Light
4. Don’t Follow Me
5. Gonna Stop Killing
6. Deeper Than The Well
7. Danceland
8. Lazy Crossbones
9. What Is It Baby?
10. Number X
CREDITS
Carla did the guitars, some synths, most samples and loops, all bass guitar, and the artwork.
Carla wrote, produced and mixed the album, mostly in collaboration with John Eichenseer as they went anywhere and played every gig that they could manage passage to. John played all the keyboards, viola, tons of electronics and drums, and snuck in a duduk. In Berlin, Andrea Belfi helped write a few songs too. He played drumset on all tracks except “One Hard Man” (John and Gambletron) and “Drowned To The Light” (Shahzad Ismaily) and played some synth. A sample from a collaboration rehearsal with Topsy The Great in Pistoia, Italy was used on “Ain’t No Grave.”
Most of the basic tracks were recorded at Tricone Studios in Berlin by Danny O’Really and Rowan Smy. Carla took the files to rural San Diego, California, tore them up and stuck them back together with solitary insomnia and bad American coffee. They fought back. They battled!
In Montréal, Jace Lasek helped finalize the mix at Breakglass and Ian Ilavsky brainstormed and helped to reign the thing in. “One Hard Man” got recorded in Ian’s apartment just as the album was being mastered by Harris Newman at Greymarket.
Backing vocals by John, Andrea, Leah Bozulich, Dominic Cramp, Jessica Anthony and Gambletron, Rupa Marya, Carla and her Great Aunt Lily and, of course, the Boy who screamed at the end of “One Hard Man.”
__ Previous Articles: _
MOON MOUNTAIN – COPENHAGEN
————-
THE CULT OF DOM KELLER
by Lars Rosenblum Sorgenfrei.
So who is Dom Keller, you may ask? Perhaps the Keller of doom? This might remain a mystery unless you ask the band… My first thought upon looking at the cover of Nottingham’s The Cult of Dom Keller’s self-titled debut is that this is going to be one psychedelic disc. Sure enough, that’s the way it turns out. Ominous guitar chords start off the first track and set the tone for a dark foray into hypnotizing territory into TCODK’s sound universe. The second track opens up with a lighter note before the chugging bass begins, giving way to some deliciously distorted guitar. “Worlds” starts out like a chugging train before the melodious lead guitar and vocals kick in and build to a crescendo. “Heavy and Dead” is downright eerie until its abrupt ending. Locked grooves. Bluesy riffs, riffs, and more riffs. The word drone comes to mind. “Black Pullet Blues” ups the ante for a instrumental heavy vibe before sailing into somewhat smoother and almost sleepy territory with some chaotic interludes.
The first track on Side B starts off with what sounds like a sitar before the layed back drums kick in and the ominous guitar starts weaving in and out. “You Are There in Me” is a more uplifting, retro tune with tambourine and the whole nine yards. The guitars get down right hypnotic before it fades out. “Nowhere to Land” reaches for the moon & the stars with some psychedelic organ. “This is What It Feels Like to Live Your Life Dead” (great title by the way) and “The Goat Skin Dream” are more subdued, with echoing vocals, except for the latter’s chaotic guitar jabs. The final track is a prolonged jam that breaks the psychedelic mold by introducing vocal harmonies.
This LP is the combination of several earlier EPs and three new tracks, released in a limited edition of 500 copies or as mp3s. Although the tracks have been remastered, the vocals still sound like they have been recorded in a tunnel in true psychedelic style. This is trance-inducing stuff – welcome to Outer Space. Fuzzy loops of guitar abound.
The prolonged, warbling jams are a bit repetitive for yrs truly’s tastes. It’s probably better under the influence of something. Several of the songs are catchy and lodge themselves in yr head – I’ll give them that. But if you are a fan of The Black Angels, Spacemen 3, Wooden Shjips, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, 13th Floor Elevators, or Ride, check out this album.
http://mannequinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mnq-037-the-cult-of-dom-keller-s-t-lp
________________
Review by Lars Rosenblum Sorgenfrei.
http://poofish.com/pmr
Lars Rosenblum Sorgenfrei is a global nomad currently based in Denmark.
He is the mainstay of the band sfu·ma·to and has self-published several collections of poetry.
EXCEPTER – LYING ON THE GROUND
video by Harrison Owen
___________________
ELECTRIC SET:
EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER (MAL 009)
MALIGNA RECORDS
All music by Electric Set
Art by Elizabeth Torres and Harrison Owen
http://maligna.bandcamp.com/album/everything-in-your-power-mal009
___________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
”Music is a continuance of ourselves, of our bodies and minds and hearts.
We have to do it. If we don’t do it, we’ll die a horrible, boring death!”
– // Julius, vocals.
Listen to ‘Grow’: First track from Ocean View’s upcoming 10′
‘Grow’ is the first track from a 10” that wasn’t really supposed to happen. Tour-planning, gigs and good stuff was keeping Ocean View busy. Then a bombardement of new songs kicked in during band rehearsals, making it a non-debatable must-do. The 10” is set for release in May 2013.
Four-piece band Ocean View has only existed for a little over a year. During that short time they’ve released a debut album ”No End” (Oct 2012), been invited to tour the US (May/June 2013), and been booked for European festivals during summer 2013, with more European bookings in the works.
All duly planned, done and dusted, when new songs started blossoming at every band rehearsal and the idea of a 10” just became non-debatable urgent.
No chance of Ocean View commiting conformicide anyway, this band isn’t about glitzy marketing, it’s about staying true to your own muse, about doing your own DIY merchandise, like hand printed back-patches given away free at gigs – all made by the band.
Both fans and reviews of the debut album claim Ocean View sounds desperate and aggressive at the same time, pretty awesome accolade, the band – all in early their early twenties – agree.The songs might sounddesperate, but perhaps even more so, it’s the sound of an urgency of life, it’s a desperation well-known to music lovers: A tale of hunting down people of your own kind, hooking up, feeling real, staying true to heart. It’s a tale of finding the drummer you wanna walk to, then turning that walk into music that’ll touch the souls and dreams of those who listen.
Ocean View will be touring the US in May/June 2013 – a load of 10” vinyls will tour with them, dates for the US and festivals TBA.
Band:
Lead vocals/guitar: Julius Ernst
Guitar: Victor Nuno
Bass: Anton Funck
Drums: Bastian Emil
All information provided by Ocean View. Contact: jettejulie rosendal, jejuro@gmail.com
Video “Coyote” – The Electric Set
created by Harrison Owen. Inspired accidentally by the recent impact of a meteor in Russia and the constant visual narration and viral repetition of daily life in our time. This is a living thing!
Bandmail: electricset@gmail.com
Upcoming releases: TBA
More songs: https://soundcloud.com/electric-set
______________________________________________
PSYCHIC ILLS – TOUR DATES
Preview and Download One Track Mind on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/one-track-mind/id593191559
___________________________________________________
INDIAN JEWELRY:
Since this internet is an almost completely obsolescent trash heap administered on a provisional pay-to-play basis: we gwin recap some.
New videos from “Peel It” in the works.
______________________________________________
The Glitter Emergency
A new film by Paul Festa
Review by: Melaine Knight.
trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2KrPQ_egHo
***Winner – Best Experimental Film – Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood***
The latest offering from Paul Festa, director of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning music film Apparition of the Eternal Church + the first film commission of ODC Theater, comes The Glitter Emergency , a screwball-comedy homage to silent film, a mash-up of drag and classical ballet, and a reinvention of the music video genre for a classical masterpiece.
Set to the haunting Canzonetta and barn-burning Finale of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, The Glitter Emergency tells the story of Peggy the Peg-Leg Ballerina (played by Trannyshack and Viva Variety favorite Matthew Simmons, a.k.a. Peggy L’Eggs), whose dreams of ballet stardom are thwarted by her disability and by her servitude to two Depraved Evil Stepsisters (Rumi Missabu of the Cockettes + Eric Glaser). Supernatural intervention comes in the form of two mercurial Pixies (Martyn Garside + San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Jaime Garcia Castilla) and the Mephistophelean superhero violinist, Stringendo (Paul Festa), culminating in Peggy triumphantly manifesting her inner ballerina (SFB’s Sylvie Volosov).
It should first be known that Paul Festa is one uber talented artist!
He is the not only the director but also writer, producer, designer, editor + playing the role of Stringendo in The Glitter Emergency.
Paul Festa studied violin at the esteemed music school Juilliard + has toured as soloist all over the world. He won The San Francisco Symphony Young Musicians Award + performed many times with Albert Fuller’s Helicon Ensemble. He has performed as both violinist + actor with the Stephen Pelton Dance Theater, Kunst-Stoff + North Bay Shakespeare Co. He has had residencies at City Of Paris/Centredes Recollets, Yaddo, MacDowell + OCD Theater. He studied english at Yale, graduating in 1996 with prizes + honors. His essays appear in The Daily Beast, Nerve, Salon + several anthologies. He is the author of OH MY GOD: Messiaen in the ear of the Unbeliever, based on Apparition Of The Eternal Church whose string of accolades include *** Winner, Best Experiemental Film, (Rome International Film Festival, Georgia, 2008) *** Winner, Best North American Independent Feature Film (Indianapolis International Film Festival, 2006) + *** Winner, Gold Medal for Excellence (Park City Music Film Festival, 2006) to name but only a few…
Apparition Of The Eternal Church trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlYdfLm69dA&feature=related
I could go on + on, in fact right off the page, but I will say Paul Festa creates amazing work + of a nature that will mesmerize + stun ordinary minds. This is what happens when you take divine inspiration + marry it with sheer hard work + talent…What struck me most about Paul Festa’s films is the intense correlation between the emotions conveyed through music + the deep spiritual resonance residing, I asked the director about this connection…
“I remember once I complained to Albert Fuller – the late harpsichord virtuoso and early music guru who was star and muse of Apparition of the Eternal Church – that while I loved the visual arts and literature, I rarely had the kinds of overpowering emotional experiences in front of a painting or reading a book or even in a theater that I regularly had listening to music. I mean, I would occasionally tear up reading or spectating but in concert halls I have wept openly and gasped.
And Albert’s response, his explanation was that music enters the ear and goes directly to the heart. He didn’t say anything about how the other arts operated, his point wasn’t to denigrate them. But what he said about music made intuitive sense to me, because there’s something about how music bypasses language and other sophisticated brain activity and gets you lower down, it’s as much a physiological as an intellectual or aesthetic response. Every filmmaker understands and exploits this power, the soundtrack is one of the reasons film can be so much more emotionally manipulative than straight theater.
Audrey Hepburn once wrote to Henry Mancini about his score for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and compared film without music to an airplane without fuel… grounded! What I’ve tried to do in my films is to reverse the film-music relationship in a way, so that instead of using music to enhance film, film is used to illuminate music. Critics of Glitter and Apparition could quibble with me on that, because in both films the music functions also as soundtracks do. But my goal with these experiments is to let emotionally and spiritually charged music write the story. Film serves to help interpret or realize the music, rather than music being there to enhance the film.”
With music being the predominant feature of Paul’s work, he is bringing back the old art form of live accompaniment in the theatre when the film is screening… live organ was played at many screenings for Apparition + Paul himself will play the Tchaikovsky concerto live for Glitter screenings (yeah really!) I asked him if there were any places he would particularly like the film to screen…
“I happen to have two particular fantasy destinations in mind, since you ask!
One is the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, a 1400-seat 1920’s jewel box where I’ve seen many silent films accompanied by the theater’s mighty Wurlitzer. So my hope is that one day the film screens there with live organ and violin accompaniment. The other place is across San Francisco Bay, at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, another pre-war movie palace where the Oakland Symphony performs. To have the film screen with live orchestra and soloist in a theater dating from the silent era would be a dream come true for me on so many levels it makes my head spin.”
Paul plays the character of Stringendo in Glitter, he’s like this Ziggy Stardust meets Paganini guy, I want to know how much is he an alter ego or just fantasy?
I aspire to be like Stringendo.
He has magical powers, he leads people to aesthetic bliss and artistic triumph, he plays the shit ouf of the Tchaikovsky Concerto, he’s surrounded by hot ballet dancers and he has washboard abs. Meanwhile I play wrong notes and have gained ten pounds since the shoot, but I try to muddle through on the other points…
Paul clearly cites Albert Fuller, muse + mentor as a strong inspiring force in his life + work…
“Regardless of how good the films are in and of themselves, I hope at least that they lead people to transcendent musical experiences they wouldn’t have had otherwise had. And I hope they help spread the gospel of Albert Fuller, who in addition to leading his Juilliard students to aesthetic bliss and artistic triumph, (like Stringendo can) drilled into us the life lessons that are central to The Glitter Emergency.
“You are the artist of your own life”
was one (life lesson) we heard over and over again, which is exactly what Stringendo keeps trying to tell Peggy the Peg-Leg Ballerina. And the other mantra I want Glitter to spread far and wide is a powerful tool for the life-artist, whether the career is in art or social work or politics or competitive snowboarding…
“Fantasy precedes fact”
Stringendo’s scary and intimidating- Peggy spends half the movie fleeing from him. It’s scary to go after what you really want in life for the same reason it’s scary to love: you might not get what you go after. But if you don’t go after it, you certainly won’t get it. That’s why Matthew Simmons is so wonderful as Peggy, because he/she conveys both the depth of the longing and the terror of going after it and the exhilaration of finally wresting the dream into reality. Peggy is the heroine. Stringendo is just her life coach.”
I love the underlying esoteric nature of these films + that they are put into a framework people can digest. I asked Paul what audiences he’d like to reach?
“A very large one. Seriously I want everyone on earth to see these films! I think they have the potential to open people’s ears to music they would never otherwise hear, even if the end result is that they reject it. I feel that way particularly about Messiaen I’m a born-again evangelist for his music, which is notoriously difficult for a lot of people. I only really discovered him in my early 30s, when I started working on Apparition, and I look back on my musical life before that discovery as being fundamentally impoverished.
I’ve been listening to Tchaikovsky since I was a child, so I may take for granted both how wonderful his music is, and also how many people have never listened to it. People in the classical music world go around with this idea that everyone must know the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, that warhorse, but I get the feeling at some of these screenings that most of the audience is hearing it for the very first time. And everyone should know this music, because it is an over-the-top extravaganza of totally athletic eroticism and overmedicated joy. Which the world needs more of, in my opinion.”
The born + bred San Franciscan has just been in upstate New York on an artist colony working on 2 follow-ups to Glitter + revising a novel, working like a dog + loving it as all us artistic maniacs do, when we’re in there creating… that world at large is a parallel reality when we’re plugged into the universal frequency!
The Glitter Emergency just screened at New York Queer Experimental Film Festival in November with a raging success… stay tuned for future screenings around the U.S. keep checking Paul’s blog…I would just love to see it with Paul’s live violin concerto, it would be a truly memorable night…
MUSIC REVIEW: ISOBEL CAMPBELL AND MARK LANEGAN
by: David Vanegas.
Confessions of a Noise fiend – Music Review – By: David Vanegas
The girl who tamed the devil
After her departure from Belle & Sebastian, Isobel Campell has kept herself busy writing solo material. I did not keep up with the Scottish pop band after their album “The Boy With The Arab Strap” (1998), so I only became aware of Campbell ’s solo efforts when I found, to my pleasant surprise, a review in some magazine about an album coming out in 2006 by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan. Being a long time fan of Lanegan’s work and feeling curious about this unlikely match, I picked up a copy of “Ballad Of The Broken Seas”.
However unlikely it seemed, the pairing of these two was an inspired idea. Lanegan’s voice is a dark and war-torn instrument, his exquisite delivery conjures visions of hard living and weariness. His golden voice is that of an ancient soul, the embodiment of a streetwise persona that draws a link between Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. Heck, he looks like a young Tom Waits. Campbell ’s material shares some musical elements with her former band, but it abandons any twee affectations and lays a stark foundation for Lanegan to let his smoky voice resound alongside Campbell ’s angelic chirp. While she wrote most of the material and played many of the accompanying instruments, she offers plenty of room to accommodate Lanegan’s talents. She gives him the lead in many of the songs, including the cover of Hank Williams’ “Rambling Man”. In the first track, “Deus Ibi Est”, the percussion stomps right in followed by Lanegan’s chilly, hoarse rasp which speaks of an inexorable fate brought upon him by unseen hands, while Campbell’s playful melody draws circles around him in the chorus. I’ve been hooked ever since.
The success of their collaboration has resulted in two more albums, “Sunday At Dirt Devil” (2008) and this year’s “Hawk”, which also includes collaborations from folk singer Willy Mason and a couple of Towns Van Zandt covers. Red Door NY attended the second of two New York dates back in October at the Williamsburg Hall Of Music. The show’s set list (pictured) was delightfully long. Isobel and Mark demonstrated great chemistry on stage. A nice moment occurred when, as one of the songs was ending, the two singers, perhaps having missed a cue, turn to each other to share a good laugh, being the one moment in the entire night in which Mark let down his guard and broke character. Mark held his own with serious and unflinching concentration, while lovely Isobel effortlessly irradiated girlish charm. She picked up the cello for a few numbers and sang a duet with guest Willy Mason.
The duo saved the best songs from “ Broken Seas ” for the encore: Lanegan’s “Revolver”, followed by Campbell ’s sweet “(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me?” and their cover of “Rambling Man”. One last treat for those of us who wish Lanegan came to NY more often was the closing song of the night, Lanegan’s “Wedding Dress”, a suave and sexy tune that may or may not indicate what this great duo would be doing after the show: “The end could be soon/we better rent a room/so you can love me.”
___________________________________
Invitation:
Catalina Santamaria.
GRAN EXPOSICION
19 de Noviembre 2010
Comunicado de Prensa
Para difusión inmediata
NUEVA YORK. Ephemeral Gallery se complace en invitar a la comunidad a la exposición del la obra del pintor Colombiano José Osorio. Esta nueva exposición gira entorno de la mujer, una mujer. José ha escogido el óleo sobre lienzo y trazos abstractos de tendencia figurativa, utilizando variedades de azules y verdes para plasmar una colección provocativa, sensual y afanosamente angustiosa.
La exposición se llevara a cabo el día 19 de Noviembre del 2010 a las 7pm en las instalaciones de Ephemeral Gallery, ubicada en el 67 Grand Street Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY 11211.
Así mismo se contara con la proyección de la película experimental de 24 minutos “Luminescence”, dirigida por Catalina Santamaría. “Luminescence”, es una mirada profunda hacia la luz, como espejo, como metáfora, como sombra y auto-reflejo. La proyección se llevara a cabo en las instalaciones de CAVE, ubicado en el 58 Grand Street, Brooklyn NY 11211. Se realizaran dos proyecciones de la película a las 7pm y a las 8:30pm respectivamente.
Se agradece de antemano la difusión de la presente información y la asistencia de los medios de comunicación.
Lugar: Ephemeral Gallery 67 Grand Street Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY 11211
Fecha: 19 de Noviembre del 2010 a las 7pm
Contacto: María Arias 347 232 5115
José Osorio y Catalina Santamaría estarán presentes durante la apertura de la exposición y la proyección de la película.
CAVE, a space for the development of contemporary performance and visual arts (www.CAVEarts.org)
CD REVIEW:
By M. Chevalier – Germany
Hunger, Blue CD (www.hungermuzik.de)
Hunger is a long-term project from two even longer-term buddies who are otherwise very active in jazz (in one case) and contemporary art (in the other). Since they first caught my notice in around 2000, they have really held their own in the very frenetic and “creative” Hamburg anti-rock instrumental-act scene, without ever stepping on any toes.
Hunger usually uses the 3-5mn “song” format wrought out of Jörg Hochapfel playing several organs simultaneously, Christoph Rothmeier slugging it out on the drums (and occasional sample), with both handling vocals and occasional other chores (violin, trumpet). But for the absence of any guitar, one may think of the Minutemen or the Ruins. The pieces are carefully planned and involve deregulation of pitch and tempo. On the other hand, the mostly “cheerful” (while not utterly “committed”) keyboard and vocal injections lead one to think a struggle against some sort of Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers/Hall and Oates spell is the motive force of what is less a concert than some Euripidean plot-line. Yet, no, the spirits are not among us in 2010: the “performative” aspect of Hunger‘s musical process involves putting themselves into an uncomfortable situation and seeing what comes out of this.
Their attitude is humorous, but not ironic. An immediate result is a break with the pathos of Sonic Youth (Star Power) or Hamburg’s Pavement-ripoff, Tocotronic: indulgent bourgeois self-importance. Is a working process such as Hunger‘s so aberrant? Already in the 1920’s, the Russian formalist Boris Eikhenbaum argued that “not a single phrase of a literary work can at any time be the direct expression of the personal sentiments of an author, it is always construction and play.” Speaking on behalf of his group, Ossip Brik wrote in the same decade “Opoyaz assumes that there are no poets or men-of-letters – there is merely poetry and literature.” A few years later, Mikhail Bahktin famously took this first generation of Russian Formalists to task for exclusively focusing on canonical literature (despite their commendable extension (and risky, considering the culturally conservative predilections of the USSR leadership!) of marxian theory into aesthetics). Bahktin, incidentally, also got into serious trouble subsequently.
Well, Hunger includes a lot of voices, even if these are a challenge to put forth without a certain detachment. But then, why not take in those musical voices from all those alienated work situations, paid music jobs, endless hours unprestigiously building things in a prestigious theater, and recycle them… but not in the “crazy” style of, say, Idiot Flesh (which has its own merits, of course).
And to get back to those deregulations of shifts and tempo, those quavering vocals: doesn’t that gesturally contextualize all that implacably overproduced mid-tempo cheerleader 1980s pop… the neoliberal deregulation of markets and onslaught on democratic control of institutions that it served to distract people from?
Track 4, Extasy starts off with an almost impromptu un-charisma (oh, the tape’s running?) but then runs through all the procedures of hyperkinetic late-1970s catharsis chart-pop à la ELO. Jüs de Früs follows a similar choreography, with a nearly snappy beginning then getting mangled by downward/wobbly tone-shift and tempo, only to build up with ever more tension, tempo shifts, flourishes, disco tricks, and ideas.
Both tunes feature singing apparently absurd lyrics in English and French (!) (not one track on the CD in German), but in a very – please take my word for this – non-goofy way.
Double Down starts with Bing Crosby-esque singing then jettisoned into rhythmic keyboard/drum attacks in devastatingly precise metric patterns.
Nippon Gakki is a cheerful melodic line à la disco-era Sun Ra, with march-like jabs at some junk metal on the snare (harkening back to F.M. Einheit’s heyday?). It is one of my favorite tracks of recent memory.
Dr. Enzian‘s industrial-distorted but “catchy” line (complete with plausible chord progressions) chimes in with nancarrowesque anti-groove, that, for me, live, opens up a very congenial bonding-of-an audience-in-something-we-have-no-idea-what-the-fuck-is (like some biopolitical magic routine, or haunted house). For a while, they ended their shows with it, like the sensorial clash of dismayed protagonists and otherwordly chorus which the aforementioned Euripides would close his tragedies with.
Just a quick coincidental aside about Carla Bozulich: she will be in New York just next week, appearing at Bowery Electric on September 23 and at Bruar Falls in Williamsburg on September 24. The new Evangelista album is also set for release on September 20. The northeast shows are part of a miniaturized tour – rather than the full Evangelista, Carla is playing with collaborator John Eichenseer (violin, keys, sampling) for noisy sets of songs including Evangelista songs, new songs, old pre-Evangelista songs, etc. The MySpace page hasn’t been very active but the full list of shows is on her Facebook page as a note (Carla Bozulich (Official)) and at Constellation’s web site.