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23—03—29
As the camera slowly zooms in, the idyllic scene of Tenerife in spring with its blue sky and warm sunshine starts to take on a surreal and grotesque quality.
The gigantic rabbit perched atop the bungalow was unnervingly motionless, its beady eyes staring into the distance, as if guarding a dark secret.
The couple, clad in vibrant beachwear, sit on a threadbare blanket in front of the bungalow. Their expressions are a mixture of euphoria and unease, as they gaze lovingly at the colossal rabbit, seemingly unaware of the bizarre nature of their situation. The sound of waves crashing against the shore is periodically interrupted by an ominous, discordant humming that seems to emanate from the rabbit itself.
As the sun begins its descent, a group of peculiar characters emerges from the bungalows nearby. They are dressed in anachronistic attire, their faces painted with garish makeup, giving them a carnivalesque appearance. They slowly congregate around the couple, forming an eerie circle as they begin to chant in a language that seems to belong to another world.
The rabbit, responding to the bizarre ritual, suddenly springs to life
—— Its eyes begin to glow, pulsating with a hypnotic red light. The couple, entranced by the rabbit’s gaze, stand up and join the circle of strangers, their expressions now vacant and detached.
A haunting melody starts to play in the background, as the group begins a macabre dance around the bungalow. The rabbit’s eyes continue to pulsate, casting an unsettling crimson glow on the scene.
With each rotation,
the couple’s faces grow more distorted and grotesque,
as if the rabbit’s gaze is warping their very essence.
As the dance reaches its climax, the camera pans out to reveal the entire beach engulfed in darkness, save for the haunting red glow emanating from the rabbit’s eyes.
The grotesque figures, along with the couple, vanish into the shadows, leaving only the eerie silence of the now desolate beach.
23—03—25
Auf Meeresspiegel
Recorded live at Makroscope, Mülheim, on February 21 2020 by Improv Krautrock band Nasssau.
Tape out on Anne Ott.
23—03—25
Shidaiqu literally means “songs of the era”, a term used to describe a hybrid musical genre that first began permeating through the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai in the late 1920s. Blending western pop, jazz, blues and Hollywood-inspired film soundtracks with traditional Chinese elements, the shidaiqu represented a musical and cultural merging that would go on to shape a golden age of Chinese popular song & film in the pre-communism interwar period.
Waiting for Your Return brings together a wide collection of recordings for an anthological overview of the style. Taking in it’s early beginnings in the work of the pioneering composer Li Jinhui – whose 1927 song “Drizzle”, featuring the vocals of his daughter Li Minghui, is often referred to as the first shidaiqu record – through to more polished 1930s & 40s examples, when China’s western-influenced popular music & movie industry reached it’s golden age with the prevalence of the Seven Great Singing Stars (Bai Hong, Bai Guang, Gong Qiuxia, Li Xianglan, Wu Yingyin, Yao Lee and perhaps most prolific of all, Zhou Xuan).
Included in the collection are tracks recorded right up until the music’s demise in Shanghai in the early 1950s – during which time the Chinese Communist Party denounced shidaiqu as “yellow music”, outlawed nightclubs and pop music production, and destroyed western-style instruments – following which, much of these singers would decamp to Hong Kong where many saw further success throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.
23—03—23
Jerusalem
Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru is a true original – an Ethiopian nun whose recordings have funded orphanages back home since the early ’60s. Her compositions and unique playing style live somewhere between Erik Satie, Debussy, liturgical music of the Coptic Ethiopian Church, and Ethiopian traditional music. It is some of the most moving piano music you will ever hear.
Releases April 14 on Mississippi.
23—03—20
Morning in the park
by Conor Nickerson.
„Biking to the center of Montreal’s 200 acre Maisonneuve Park, I found a quiet spot in the grass and sat down with my guitar and old H1 Zoom microphone. It was a morning in late May, and I was in the midst of trying to finish several projects. Feeling stuck and at a loss of inspiration, I decided to come to the park in an effort to clear my head. I took my guitar out from its case, set my microphone in front of me, and began recording improvised ideas.
I spent the next few mornings there, recording between the sounds of distant sirens and planes flying overhead. Back at my apartment, I improvised some additional woodwind arrangements with the help of a cheap flute and an old leaky Bundy clarinet, and using samples made from these two instruments, I also made flute and clarinet synths which were used on several tracks.
Unsure of what to name the tracks, which were originally labelled “Maisonneuve 1-20”, I decided to write a 20-line poem à la Robert Frost which would serve as the album’s track titles.
The result of this experiment is morning in the park, recorded between Maisonneuve Park and my apartment.”
23—03—20
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
The mind is it’s own place,
and in itself
can make
a heaven of hell,
a hell of heaven.
While investigating a young nun’s rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness and redemption.
Stream full movie on archive.org.
23—03—18
1976
Original soundtrack composed by Mariá Portugal for Manuela Martelli’s feature movie “1976” out on Fun in the Church.
