A visual electro-acoustic project: Improvisation sessions in a room, a place, a house, public performances with videos & photo projections, and a music set between 20 & 35 minutes.

Videos : Julien Beau
Slides Photos : Monolyth & Cobalt
Music : Julien Beau + Monolyth & Cobalt

Recorded at “L’atelier sous la Tente” Bordeaux FR

More about Christophe Massé
toffer.canalblog.com

More about Monolyth & Cobalt
www.myspace.com/monolythcobalt

Second post of the week featuring the fabulous Arborea kind of lets you know just how good we think these guys are. This time round we have featured two short films that Buck and Shanti shot whilst on tour in Oregon and California back in April. The tracks faetured are both from the 2008 self-titled album…

Magpie Magazine Interview

When did you both begin to make music?

Shanti – I guess I seriously began to make music about four years ago, but I come from a very musical family: there was always music, recording, practice and gigs happening, so I’ve been saturated in it all my life. I just wasn’t very interested in it personally until these past few years…

Buck – I’ve been making music for over 25 years, but was never satisfied doing it alone. I think finding another person, or a group of people that you can work well with can be a deep challenge, and something I’ve rarely experienced in all those years. Shanti and I have been married for 10 years and I always knew she had an amazing voice, and although she could already play the guitar and knew some old folk tunes her mother had showed her years ago, it took her years to finally open up and start singing. I gave her a banjo on her birthday during the summer of 2005 and she just took off…it was truly amazing! We also had a lot of backyard parties that summer with other poets and musicians and that interaction really helped her open up.

How would you describe your sound?

Shanti – I would describe it as earhtly and etheral, dreamy and fervent and maybe a bit melancholy…nothing pragmatic about it, it’s more of an emotional narrative of our lives.

What inspires you to make music?

Shanti – A lot of things inspire – I wish to escape my direct environment, but also to reinterpret that which I understand, to help it thrive with beauty and energy. I have a reverance for the mystery and magic in this world and I know it beats in rhythm with my heart and flows in my veins as one with my blood, and I draw it deep into my lungs with the air I breathe in. To make music and songs of love and life is only a natural trade – a giving back to what I have taken in. I strive to carry on in harmony, to find and bond with the great, secret, vague, beautiful truth.

Buck – Sharing my life with Shanti and the experiences we’ve had is my dearest inspiration. Then there are our two wild and beautiful children. Also the duality of the rugged and soft beauty of nature, history, and dear friends!

Are they inspired by the natural landscape near your home?

Shanti – Oh yes! Golden sun, a gentle breeze, green and verdant fields, gentle caressing water, tumbling, singing brooks, wild mountains, oh! I saw a mama moose and her baby standing in the roadway last week – it was so incredible, my heart was beating fast, we were in a car, but moose can sometimes be very agressive and I was hoping she wouldn’t charge at us, in defence of her baby. I felt blessed to have seen them – and Buck just saw tow bald eagles soaring in the air near our house, whilst I am sitting here writing this…

The winter is exceptionally inspiring in a particular way. It can be so isolating, and deadly, gloomy, dreary, despondent, lonely, and so very, very cold. All the songs from our latest album were written and recorded during the winter and I think it really reflects what we were going through. There is this sense of the infinite loneliness of the landscape paired with the friction of two lovers left alone and forsaken in a gorgeous and fatal place.

Buck – A lot of the songs we’ve created together on both records have been inspired by our natural landscapes. ‘Black Mountain Road’ is a place near her grandfather’s house, which is near the Appalachian trail here in Maine. ‘On To The Shore’, from Wayfaring Summer is an ode to a place where we take our children every summer and describes through words and music the path we have to take to get to the ocean. It’s a two mile hike up a soft mountain and then down to an isolated beach. A place we visit every summer…rugged and so beautiful.

Of course these are landscapes we can’t afford to take for granted, and places that are gradually disappearing because of development. We moved to Maine 8 years ago, to start a different life, away from the crowded city and coastline of Virginia, and to be closer to Shanti’s family. Ireland is another place of great inspiration, the beauty of the Wicklow Mountains and the earthiness of Dublin!

How do you begin to write a song? Are they improvised?

Shanti – Quite a lot of the music is improvised – I think that is why it has such mood to it. We knowingly try to encapsulate a moment, or feeling, like immortalizing a photograph. A few songs required a bit of work, but there are still some moments that are spontaneous.

Buck – Some of the lyrics for songs like Black Mountain Road and River and Rapids are very crafted and took a lot of time to get right. Hopefully they convey a strong vibrant image, a place and time, through music. On the song Idles of March for example, we turned on the mic and Shanti picked up a guitar and started strumming random chords, first take and completely improvised. We then reversed the track. I put the headphones on and we recorded my slide guitar improvisation over that, and so on. We create a lot of music in that manner, as a true collaboration, one action inspiring the next. Helena Espvall’s cello parts on Red Bird and Black Mountain Road were all recorded in a studio in Philadelphia a couple of hours before she had to fly to England, to perform with Espers. She improvised lots of tracks so we would have many takes to choose from. The thing was that all her takes were so beautiful we ended up using almost everything, creating small orchestras of her music.

Where di the name Arborea come from?

Buck – In the late summer of 1997 through that Autumn I lived in Dublin, Ireland and I have a good friend who was friends with a Dublin musicalCollective who called themselves Arborea. That collective was a perfect marriage of Theatre and Music and I saw them perform several times.

The concept of the band and their name, which for some reason reminded me more of the Aurora Borealis than a deep forest, was something that was a huge inspiration and always stayed with me. Anyway, in the summer of 2005 when Shanti and I decided it was time to start recording our first album, we started searching for a proper name and eventually I pulled out Arborea and checked to see if the Dublin band was still in existence and couldn’t find anything. The other reality of the name is that it has intense dark forest imagery, and a large part of the initial of our sound came from the idea of two people creating music in a dark holler in the mountains and the sound of our instruments and voices reflecting of the mountains, and water and echoing through the trees…a primordial Cathedral. It seemed a perfect name really.

What message do you hope to convey to your listeners?

Shanti - Well, I hesitate to say I want to convey a message, we live in a time where people are sick of being told what to do, or how to feel or think, and I am very conciouss of that. My best hope is that our music somehow enhances the experiences you are already having, that it comes with you on your passage…like a friend or a lover who helps the time pass splendidly.

Buck – Shanti said it best! – Magpie Magazine Interview

Well worth checking out the Magpie Magazine and grabing a copy here

Also don’t forget that Arborea will be playing at Cafe OTO on 1st September alongside Vanishing Twins and Two Wings. You can get your tickets here

Arborea will also be playing another London gig on August 31st at The Gladstone in Borough www.myspace.com/theglad

Also make sure to go visit Arborea’s web site below to savour more of their unique and rather wonderful music!

www.myspace.com/arborea2
www.arboreamusic.blogspot.com
www.magpiemagazine.blogspot.com

With Sharon Van Etten proving to be as popular as ever over on the channel 2 playlist, we just had to post the latest film from Vincent Moon as he shoots an intimate day in the Big Apple with the talented artist…

Vincent Moon’s days are burning. They disappear quicker than anyone else’s. He gambles his time, rather than spending it or wasting it. It’s hard to keep track of what country he’s in from one day to the next, though you know that wherever he is, ideas will always be spilling forth: scribbled into his notebook, scrawled across his hands, typed onto his battered phone, caught between his hair.

The simplicity of his films tricks you into thinking that such magic can be produced anywhere, anytime. So persistently suggesting that Vincent shoot a new band means sounding like an overzealous matchmaker, always trying to set him up with someone in whatever city he happens to be in at the time – someone, you promise, he’s bound to love…

Like Sharon Van Etten – a bright-eyed but vulnerable folk figure that you suspect has a secret penchant for bad boys, late nights and loud music. Since her first bedroom recordings, Sharon specialises in creating a personal connection with the listener: a moment shared that only ends with the sound of her pressing the stop button in an otherwise empty room. Her voice has a sincere, timeless quality that uses simple phrasing and a sense of urgency to draws you in, whether you’ve experienced heartbreak or not. If she makes a mistake in her live performances, for some reason it makes you smile instead of flinching.

Vincent likes mistakes, accidents and coincidences. His style of shooting is a perfect match for the “sad but perfect” moments in Sharon’s music. So one day in February, after almost a year of gentle reminders, he snuck off to meet her in New York without saying anything. The other magic to Vincent’s films is that they make you want to be there, make you wonder where you were and what you were doing when it was shot. But in a way, it’s better than being there. Real life has never looked so beautiful. The ordinary gains a mystique. These films trick you into thinking you’re sharing a private moment, when really the whole world could be watching too.

So here is Sharon: wrapped up and hidden, her bobbing head disappearing into a golden haze; a stray bead of light flaring through the lens; the Statue of Liberty over her shoulder; the reflection of an old tram trembling in the window of a diner; the sunset captured in her shades; the birds seemingly following the trail of her songs.

It doesn’t matter whether they are her best performances or not. You experience the music by stepping into these in-between moments. You want to know more… and that’s the best introduction anyone can give, because there is plenty to get to know. Her music is waiting for you, welcoming you, not asking where you’ve been all this time.

That’s it, that’s the magic. Another day burned through. Here’s hoping that fire never goes out. – Cian Traynor for La Blogotheque

A film by Vincent Moon
Images, sounds & edit by Vincent Moon
Mix by Francois Clos
Produced by Temporary Areas

www.blogotheque.net
www.vincentmoon.com
www.myspace.com/sharonvanetten

We stumbled across this exquisite live footage of Bon Iver some time ago now and have been meaning to add it but for one reason or another never got round to doing so. Well, today I finally got my but in gear and have added the full live performance. Huge respect goes out to Vincent for continuing to film artists in their rawest and most intimate form…

We first suggested this idea just like we used to, hoping it would work because we so loved the artist. We just suggested that Bon Iver could play a private show, a Pocket Party in an apartment. We didn’t really know if we could trust that it would ever happen until one moment in May, when Nora and I met Justin for an interview in a small backyard. At the end of it, we mentioned what was on our minds. He immediately responded that this is kinda what he dreams of: that his album is meant to be played in front of small crowds, and that he was looking forward to it.

We, too, were looking forward to it, and God knows how hard it all was. We had to reschedule everything at the last minute; there was another gig in competition with ours; Canal+ stole our initial date. But when you have faith, you end up under the porch of a building in Abbesses on a rainy Monday with Justin, Sean, Mike, and their tour manager, bonnets, and gear, waiting for the caretaker to come back and give you the keys to the Buxes’ apartment.

We emptied the living room for the Pocket Party, and then spent an hour or so wandering with Bon Iver. Over the course of the afternoon, we thought over the best way to play—plain acoustic, without any amp. We brought them a melodica, a Glockenspiel; there was also Ethel’s little toy piano. Justin talked about walking among the audience, occupying the space. Then Vincent Moon arrived, and we left him alone with the band in the apartment. We had to go buy some beer.

What you can see in these first videos, and what we understood that evening, is how thoroughly Bon Iver is now a band. How important young Mike, Justin’s student, and Sean, who went to Justin after a show and offered to accompany him, are in setting up the songs. Justin comes in to counterpoint Sean’s voice at the end of the first half of “Lump Sum”, and Sean is the leader, even though he looks to Justin for approval and quickly defers to him before any major maelstrom.

Flash back, however, to earlier in the day as they worked out their set. They first tried working with voices only, after Sean had talked about Grizzly Bear’s Take Away Show, about their a cappella performance of “Knife” in the streets. Justin asked his two pals to try the same thing on “For Emma”. A ritornello on two octaves for Sean and Mike, accompanied by snapping for the rhythm: that would be just enough…

Time does fly: thirty people were already waiting in the courtyard when we returned from our little shopping excursion. We couldn’t let them come up—we weren’t ready: Moon and Bon Iver were still shooting “For Emma” in Ethel’s bedroom. In the end, the band came to them… The three guys just popped in without us expecting them, and started singing this newborn version of “For Emma”. It was a divine surprise. The band had already disappeared into the streets, but we were still flabbergasted. We had to make the audience come up and prepare for the show. But this is another story… And other videos…

We already described the magic of this party. A magic that depended on its intimacy, of course; on the acoustics; but, above all, on the reciprocity. Between each song, Justin took a few minutes to talk to us, telling us how happy they were to be there, on that particular night, with such a small crowd.

After the band entered the room by the balcony, playing “Flume”, they asked once again to be closer to the audience. We could see the sun’s rays slipping away and hear the noisy street, but we didn’t care—Justin was explaining that was how he wanted to play his songs. Perfect. That was how we wanted to listen to them.

In order not to miss a second of the show, Vincent Moon’s cameras stayed on the whole evening. It would have been a shame to miss anything, indeed: each song was a real gem. Plus, Bon Iver gave us two covers: the Bowerbirds’ “Olive Heart” and a song by John Prime. But Moon was just like everyone else on that night: he didn’t want to do the filming only. He also wanted to be thrilled, to close his eyes and sway. So he abandoned his camera. It passed from hand to hand before Vincent took it back and moved gently among the people who were sitting while Justin performed “Wolves”. The band invited us to sing along with them, as they do in all of their shows…

To give you a more precise recap of the evening, we should have let a camera film the declining day, the ceiling light we switched off, the candles we put on the floor. When Sean and Mike left their chairs to let Justin sing “Skinny Love”, it was night-black.

Afterwards, there were hugs, sushi, and some joints. Then we went down in the street. Liz Green was there; we sang in front of a carousel, on sidewalks, in the middle of the road, and then in a bar, where we got drinks. We can’t show you everything, though. We have to keep some things to ourselves, just next to the conviction that we’re going to organize other parties like this one. Thank you, Bon Iver. And thanks to those who were there. – Text by chryde

Filmed & edited by Vincent Moon
Sound by Benoit Furic & Dominique Ciekala
Produced by La Blogotheque

Shot in Montmartre, Paris, may 2008

www.vincentmoon.com
www.blogotheque.net

Doesn’t get much better than watching Richard and Elly’s live performance at La Java in Paris from Glissando’s European tour with Trespassers William in October 2009…

www.myspace.com/glissando
www.slowsecret.com

Charles Hayward, for those who don’t know, is a veteran drummer and innovator of modern music. One of the founding members of experimental rock group, This Heat, he continues to work as a collaborator as well as a solo artist to this day…

With sounds ranging from free-jazz to more experimental electro-acoustic recordings filmmaker Peter Bromley has set out to convey the musicianship of Charles Hayward in his short documentary “Charles Hayward Recorded”

Blending exerts of rehearsals, live performance, interviews with fellow musicians and collaborators as well as one on one sound bites with the man himself, “Charles Hayward Recorded” is an intricate exploration. With improvisation a key ingredient to his sound, we learn of the differences to his music compared to the free play of jazz where “it happens and goes.” For Hayward, his music is about the creation of multiple sound worlds which in turn become a single piece or a song.

The free nature of Hayward’s music is to some degree reflected in the filmmaking, with the documentary not really holding any particular structure. As a result, the film really feels like a fairly simple joining of performance and interviews and as such as an audience member there is not a great pull towards the subject.

So, while the recordings of the live performances are an interesting means of putting Hayward’s recordings into context, it is the solo interviews that provide the most captivating moments within this film. Hearing him speak, one can feel the true essence of his craft, with his “sound reality” built upon the influences of locations dear to him.

We learn from the offset that Hayward is an anagram for hard way, and while he jokes that this is the story of his life, he also concludes that “music is either about memory or a prediction.” Indeed, it is the unpredictable or hard approach to his music that has left his musical memorable to those who have enjoyed his sounds over the last three decades.

Review by Josh Atkin for Fluid Radio

www.charleshayward.org
www.1968filmgroup.net
www.peterbromley.net

No matter how many times I watch this video it just gets better and better and we felt that a ‘re-post’ was more than deserved for those new to Fluid Radio…

We could classify bands who do Take Away Shows into three categories: those we go and get; those who come and get us; and those we come across, kinda miraculously. Satine belongs to the latter category because of what a stroke of luck my encounter with them was, a succession of lucky breaks that makes you feel helpless. Through these coincidences, I ended up in their rehearsal studio in the 18th arrondissement on a Sunday evening, holding a camera. Some music, a video shot in their studio; little by little, the inspiration to shoot a Take Away Show took shape on both sides. Meanwhile, the opportunity to film in a different location arose.

A roof. The tin roof of a building in the centre of Paris, a bank “squatted” by Jeudi Noir for a few months, which the association opened for us. It was not easy, though: lugging the instruments to the top and pushing them through the kitchen’s windows forced some of us to overcome our fear of heights. However, all I could see was the childlike smiles on Satine’s faces once we made it to the top. After a few minutes – we needed to get used to the sloping roof and strong wind – music repossessed the moment. – La Blogo Theque

Produced and directed by Nathanaël Le Scouarnec

www.takeawayshows.com
www.myspace.com/satinemusic
www.blogotheque.net

Farewell Poetry present a superb twenty two minute live performance of ‘As True As Troilus’ at the ’36 Heures’ festival in Paris in the famous St-Eustache church – a Gothic structure clothed in Renaissance details, built between 1532 and 1632…

It was a really great experience for us and we would like to thank again here all the wonderful ’36 heures’ festival team & the bands we shared the stage with on this night : Matthias Durand, Itah Benitah, the Sin Collective, the Art d’Ifer Collective, Pierre Favrez, Turzi, Juan Trip, Dr (Dr)ône, Trinité, It, Math & The Letters, etc. – Farewell Poetry

Film shot by Alain G. (Soul-Kitchen) & Rod (Le Hiboo). Warm thanks to both of them.

www.myspace.com/farewellpoetry

After our recent review of the upcoming offering from ‘Everthing Is’ I stumbled across two delightful videos on the artists web site that are well worth checking out…

www.myspace.com/everythingismusic

A stunning extract from the live film “Burning”, out in August 2010 produced by Vincent Moon, Nathanael le Scouarnec and Mogwai…

A film by Vincent Moon & Nathanael le Scouarnec
Images by Vincent Moon, Nathanael le Scouarnec, Jeremiah, Antoine laurent
Edited by Nathanael le Scouarnec & Vincent moon

The Scottish band Mogwai performs an incandescent show in front of a stunned crowd. As if time stood still, the audience is transported along by musical waves, both poetic and violent. ‘Burning’ dives into this wild sensual flow. Directors Vincent Moon and Nathanaël Le Scouarnec guide us into a dream where there is no tomorrow. This is a black and white experience of the senses carved by the raw emotion of this pioneering band that doesn’t need any words to touch the heart of its listeners. Layered and innovative, the movie has its finger firmly on their pulse, a sonic adventure between hope and rebellion. A lifetime of feelings in just one night. – Vincent

www.mogwai.co.uk
www.vincentmoon.com
www.vimeo.com/nathanael