I just received some news about a fan-made film by Steve Johns using Charles and Ray Eames’ classic and impressive Powers of Ten and music by Mat Jarvis also known as Gas of the legendary em:t-collection. See also Charles & Ray Eames and Microscopic.
Last weekend we went to see Candy presented at the Charles Theatre as part of the Cinema Sundays series. If you never did Cinema Sundays before, I can highly recommend it. You need to get up rather early in the morning, but it’s worth it: You get a breakfast with bagels, coffee or tea while watching good films on the big screen. Candy is a film directed by Neil Armfield with Abbie Cornish, Heath Ledger and Geoffrey Rush. It’s a love story of a poet and an art student and their love for heroin.
The Internet Movie Database summarizes:
“Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair”
I liked this film a lot. All actors were wonderful, especially Geoffrey Rush. Story, composition and photography were beautiful and Tim Buckley was a great music choice. The subject of addiction has always been fascinating to me, and it has been treated in so many films and variations worldwide, almost creating a film genre on its own with films like Leaving Las Vegas, Trainspotting, The Boost, Bright Lights Big City, some about alcohol, some about cocain, heroin, some realistic and shocking, some fun and hip, some about a real story, some fictional… Candy reminded me of Christiane F.—Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, the German early 1981 film (with music and an appearance by David Bowie) about very much the same subject. If it plays in a theatre nearby… I can really recommend it.
Just recently I discovered and fell in love with two Robert Wyatt video clips Sea Song performed at the Old Grey Whistle Test and Shipbuilding, a recording for the BBC Four documentary. I find it difficult to find the words to describe my impressions, but there is a very beautiful and honest quality that convinced me in an instant. Perhaps it’s Wyatt’s uniqueness, his unconventional, but very natural and playful vocals.
I first heard Robert Wyatt in the 1996 Millenium ambient-pop project with Michael Brook, Chikako Sato and Jo Bogaert. Robert Wyatt described as one of the “best-kept secrets of contemporary British music” I of course had never heard of him until recently. I really have missed a lot. I can’t wait to see Free Will and Testament, the BBC Four documentary with John Peel, Brian Eno, Annie Whitehead, Alfie and Robert Wyatt himself.
For quite some time I had been looking for Pop, Königsforst and Zauberberg by Gas aka Wolfgang Voigt. And today I finally managed to find and acquire all three masterpieces. Now I only need an extra-soft velvet pillow for them to rest on.
Somebody wrote about Pop:
“[...]very subtle and fragile ambient, sparkling nature, endlessly looping and gently shifting, making it very quietening, even to the point it would trance you into total detachment. This last quality is amazing: if you offer the album your attention, your thinking kind of gets fuzzy and you’ll get sucked into this slow motion modus.[...]”
Another:
“This is one of the most haunting pieces of music I’ve heard. I’m not sure what my exact feelings are, but the previous reviewer is quite right—it puts you into sort of a dreamlike state. [...]”
Somebody else wrote about Zauberberg:
“[...]This CD is a drug. No, really, it is.[...] the droning beat, the ominous dark pads, the deep atmospheres all create a haunting, isolated environment that is addictive and demented.[...]”
I completely agree with all these comments and there is not much I could add really. These albums place you into a strange, yet familiar organic environment composed of layers of foggy beats, ambient sound, distortions and roughness. Although the environment you enter feels complex and natural, I would describe the music itself as simplistic and minimal in comparison to other soundscapes. It’s hard to describe, but this music has a mesmerizing effect on me, and I could listen to these albums for hours in an infinite loop. Fantastic—I’m really happy I own them now.
In a completely different musical genre… I found that Wim Mertens just released a DVD titled What you see is what you hear. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time Wim Mertens released a visual document of his work. I just ordered it and look forward to seeing Wim Mertens in concert for the first time, and listening to him for the first time in more than five years.
Wim Mertens is a Belgian composer who became quite well known and popular with compositions like Struggle for Pleasure, Close Cover and Maximizing the Audience. He appears to be especially popular in Spain. Once some of his work has been covered into techno versions which I’m not a big fan of. I heard his music for the first time in a film called Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea also known as Li by Marion Hänsel, starring Stephen Rea and Ling Chu. Wim Mertens contributed a strong and emotionally very moving soundtrack to the story about a friendship between middle-aged man and a young Chinese girl. The man is a sad and lonely radio operator of a merchant ship who tries to forget his sorrow by smoking opium. The girl supports her family by offering cleaning and housekeeping services on the ships in the harbor. The film allows a brief insight into the cultural differences, but deals mostly with the individuals, their lives and personal concerns without trying to become too political.
I really liked this film and the score which both left a very strong impression on me. I began to explore Wim Mertens’ other works for a while. I would describe his work with three categories:
One album, Sin Embargo, was very different in that he played the guitar and even whistles on one track The Scene. The first live-album Epic That Never Was together with the soundtrack A Man Of No Fortune, And With A Name To Come were my favorites for many years.
Unfortunately, he released so many albums in very small quantities—it had been difficult to collect his work from the very beginning. He also began to release such a vast amount of albums, most of which I did not enjoy as much as his earlier work, that eventually, I stopped collecting his work and didn’t follow the material he produced over the more recent years.
Not having listened to much of his music in the past few years this DVD is going to be a nice treat. Not only get I listen to his music again, but also actually watch him with 16 compositions selected from his 25 years’ career, recorded in the Roma in Antwerpen on 30th September 2005 with an ensemble of 12 musicians with 6 female singers, 5 strings and Wim Mertens himself, piano and voice.
Wim Mertens also wrote a book American Minimal Music discussing work of composers like Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. If you are familiar with and enjoy Philip Glass’ work you might like Wim Mertens, too.