"Music is like sculpture. It's like trying to capture a moment of ultimate momentum, and distill it forever".
- Clark, August 2014
This is where the sounds of the machine meet the sounds of the world. A protracted club experience distilled into a cinematic, immersive whole. Clark’s chiseled vision of techno contextualized for a post-rave environment - the clean, cold edges of technology eroded over time to produce raw, fascinating new textures.
These textures lay the foundations for a hugely kaleidoscopic listening experience filled with warmth. Memorable songwriting packed with melody and subtle, unpredictable shifts in mood; a finely balanced mix of electronic composition, heads down techno, human nature and the environment it was created in.
'Clark', boldly eponymous, crescendos a narrative that commenced with 'Clarence Park', the first “Clark” attributed album 'Body Riddle', through the Yin and Yang of 'Turning Dragon' and 'Iradelphic', and finely honed through this year's 'Superscope' EP and visually intense Phosphor live show.
"I wanted to let the weather in with this album", Clark explains. "It’s outward looking, it’s drenched in sounds of the outside world, sounds free from human intervention: branches crackling in the wind, storms brewing, the stillness of settling snow. It’s all in there, amongst the moreish crunch of industrial machinery”.
These real world elements offer a sense of a meditation that beckons the listener to leave human desires behind. A detailed field recording of boots in snow creeps into an echo of piano house on ‘Strength Through Fragility’, swallowing up the melancholy of the melody rather ruthlessly, teasing these things out of the listener as the track progresses. The essence of the new being carved from an unheard ancientness appears throughout 'Clark', a tactile interaction between alien elements creating something that would not have otherwise existed.
The machines hold their own against nature: ‘Banjo’ is a straight up MPC/synth funk jam played over three notes, the hypnotic arpeggios of ‘Unfurla’ are underpinned by a solid 4/4 kick drum, peak-rave euphoria is captured in ‘There’s a Distance In You’. At its essence 'Grit In The Pearl' is more Berghain than Guggenheim - a club banger, albeit in a parallel dimension filtered through the 'Clark' lens, lending new context to its spiralling rave chords.
The theme of reduction, a sculpture of sound, wins out in the end. Closing beatless piece 'Everlane' is a cathartic conclusion to ‘Clark’, the elements ultimately refined into timeless, ethereal melodies echoing into the ages:
"It straddles this fine line of being ultimate bliss and sadness at the same time. I find this emotional terrain compelling and keep on coming back to it. I need that epic sense of closure".
'Clark' will be released by Warp Records on 3rd November 2014.
Arrow Video is delighted to announce a limited theatrical run of the upcoming Blu-ray & DVD release Salvatore Giuliano, one of the undisputed classics of Italian 1960s cinema. The film will open in select cinemas across the UK on 26th September before being released in a new digital transfer on Blu-ray and DVD on 29th September 2014.
This new re-release, featuring a truly astonishing restoration, which was completed in December 2013, will mark the Blu-ray world premiere for Salvatore Giuliano. Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association funded a full-scale 4K makeover involving director Francesco Rosi himself, making this one of the strongest and most impressive restorations of a classic black-and-white Italian film that Arrow Video have released to date.
The disc will also include the 55-minute documentary ‘The Filmmaker and the Labyrinth’ alongside three shorter interviews which are all exclusive to Arrow Video and were shot in July and August of this year. Each interview looks at Salvatore Giuliano from three contrasting but complementary perspectives: the film’s director Francesco Rosi discusses the film itself, the real-life Salvatore Giuliano’s nephew Giuseppe talks about the man in the context of Sicilian politics, and journalist and Sicilian Mafia specialist Attilio Bolzoni looks at the links between Giuliano and the Mafia. This supplementary material should allow viewers to not just learn about Rosi’s films but also the historical backdrop to the film (which is further explored in the booklet).
Synopsis:
5 July 1950. Salvatore Giuliano, Italy’s most wanted criminal, is found shot dead in a dusty courtyard. Who killed him, and why? And who was he?
The film that made Francesco Rosi’s international reputation, this Citizen Kane-style investigative portrait was originally called Sicily 1943-60, as Rosi sought not so much to depict Giuliano himself as the society from which he sprang, in which the police, the carabinieri and the Mafia all have strong vested interests. Filming in the exact locations and utilising court reports as primary source material, Rosi mainly cast local Sicilians, some of whom knew Giuliano personally. The only professional actors were Frank Wolff (Once Upon a Time in the West) and Salvo Randone (L’Assassino).
Stunningly shot by Gianni di Venanzo (Fellini’s 8½), the film was immediately hailed as a masterpiece, with Sight & Sound calling it “one of the most courageous things the Italian cinema has ever attempted”. More recently, Martin Scorsese cited it as one of his twelve favourite films, and his Film Foundation sponsored this sparkling new 4K restoration by the Cineteca di Bologna.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
· New 4K digital restoration from the Cineteca di Bologna
· High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the film
· Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM Audio
· The Filmmaker and the Labyrinth, Roberto Andò’s documentary study of Francesco Rosi’s career featuring the filmmaker himself, Martin Scorsese and Giuseppe Tornatore among others
· Francesco Rosi on Salvatore Giuliano, a new and exclusive interview with the great Italian director
· The Sicilian Robin Hood, an interview with Salvatore Giuliano’s nephew Giuseppe
· Salvatore Giuliano and the Mafia, an interview with journalist and Sicilian Mafia expert Attilio Bolzoni
· Theatrical Trailer
· Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw
· Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Pasquale Iannone, an annotated synopsis by Ben Lawton, plus a selection of contemporary reviews
"Wolves" is a dark and beautiful song by Mari and The Ghost, a new synthpop band from USA/Belgium.
Wolves (lyrics by mari Kattman, music by Jean-Marc Lederman)
There was a time when i used to be so lonely
So hollowed out so empty you could hear the sounds reverberate inside of me
But the weight of which grounded my feet
And my thoughts are loud recreated in a screaming mute sound
I know you’ve found out theres no need for you anymore
Lost and tired
Strength is silence silence
A great confusion clouds you till’ you yearn for something more
Lost and tired strength is silence silence
What does it take for these wolves to come and find me
The stars they call like sirens to arrange my body
In the heavens above me
Throughout a storied career as a musician, producer and engineer, Daniel Lanois helped push the ambient genre forward into celestial new territory as Brian Eno’s foremost protégé; he has recorded landmark albums for U2 and Peter Gabriel and helped to revitalize the sonic dimensions of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. But Flesh And Machine (out October 27) marks the first time Lanois has truly deployed every sonic weapon in his arsenal in hopes that it may reach the position of headphone album of the year. Hear the first track off the new album entitled “Opera” care of The Wall Street Journal HERE.
Flesh And Machine was initially conceived as an ambient album, and tracks such as ‘Forest City’ take the classic Brian Eno albums that he worked on Ambient 4: On Land (1982) and Apollo: Atmospheres And Soundtracks (1983) as a wonderful bedrock to stand on to see the sonic future. The album bristles with new ideas. He spent countless hours processing an array of source sounds – steel and electric guitar, piano and human voice to create the sound palette that is Flesh and Machine.
Daniel Lanois is still raising that spirit of music and still opening up doors to the unknown.
Flesh and Machine Track Listing:
1. Rocco
2. The End
3. Sioux Lookout
4. Tamboura Jah
5. Two Bushas
6. Space Love
7. Iceland
8. My First Love
9. Opera
10. Aquatic
11. Forest City
In anticipation of this forthcoming release Lanois is proud to team-up with Robert Milazzo of The Modern School of Film to present a breakthrough union of moving-media, sonic design and social architecture. Lanois and The Modern School of Film have enlisted a select number of established international filmmakers to create visual works inspired by the new sonic frontier surveyed in Flesh and Machine.
Filmmakers Atom Egoyan The Sweet Hereafter, Mary Harron American Psycho, Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene, Jim McKay Breaking Bad and Ondi Timoner Dig! have all contributed short-form works to this series with along with more filmmakers to be announced soon.
The next level of this project is to find a select number of "undiscovered" filmmakers/artists to contribute and submit films for this one of a kind multi-dimensional hybrid of sound-as-media. Lanois and the Modern School of Film will curate this project and select three of the best films from these submissions to be used alongside the aforementioned directors for the promotion of the album, international screenings and within the live performance setting on the 2014/2015 tour cycle in support of this album. Please visit www.fleshandmachine.com to learn more about the submission process and you can also follow the progress of this project at www.fleshandmachinedaniellanois.tumblr.com.
The definitive Primus line-up – Les Claypool, guitarist Larry LaLonde, and drummer Tim Alexander - is back together and set to release their first full-length studio album in nearly 20 years, 'Primus & the Chocolate Factory,’ due out on ATO Records on 3rd November. "The idea was to combine the Frog Brigade and Primus, and do this record,’ says Claypool. “I think like a good portion of the planet, we were all pretty put off by the remake of the 'Willy Wonka' movie - the Tim Burton version. I really wanted to pay homage to a film [1971's 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,' starring Gene Wilder] that was very important to me as a kid and very influential to me musically. So that's what we did. And as opposed to just going in and recording the songs and playing them the way they are in the film, we twisted them up a bit…twisted them up a lot." Re-imagined classic track “Pure Imagination” recently premiered on Rolling Stone.
Things felt so good, in fact, that Claypool decided to take Primus into the studio to prepare the soundtrack for an album release. He admits that he’s always, “in some way, wanted to be Willy Wonka,” and, also, that he’s always wanted to work a cover of “The Candyman”, a memorable number from the film’s soundtrack, into Primus sets. “Hell, I’ve been doing the line from the boat ride on stage since the ‘80’s,” then Les sings, ”There’s no earthly way of knowing, which direction we are going…”
“The thought was that I wanted to take on some kind of sacred cow, and the whole Wonka thing was a massive part of my childhood,” Claypool explains. “It just seemed like the perfect project to take on, in part because those tunes are all so strong.”
“The recording is about my early perception of the original ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ film,” says Claypool. “The notion wasn’t so much to go in and redo the soundtrack note for note as much as it was to utilise the classic elements of the music, yet try to reflect some of the darker undertones of the Roald Dahl books, because when you read those books, there is an eerie and somewhat menacing aspect implied.”
With the album scheduled for 3rd November, Primus plans to tour the Chocolate Factory. “We’re going to do some touring with it and we put together this pretty abstract stage production,” says Claypool, “We’re going to take it out there, around the planet, and see what happens. And, in light of the record business being gutted by the internet, we’ve made some PRIMUS brand chocolate bars to peddle as well.”
Of course, Claypool realised that it was risky business to adapt a cinematic classic that is so close to so many people’s hearts. And, naturally, he realised that it was dangerous waters to swim in the wake of Gene Wilder. The band pulls it off by making something that is truly their own without taking anything away from the movie. When asked about the fairly recent Tim Burton attempt at bringing the Roald Dahl story to the screen Claypool comments, “Look, I love me some Tim Burton, when he writes his own stuff, and I respect what Johnny Depp has done over the years. Hell, Ed Wood is one of my favourite films, but that (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is just unwatchable and believe me I’ve tried…twice as a matter of fact,” Les continues, “Even my kids hated it”.
“Our project is an homage to Gene Wilder and David L. Wolper’s ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ and the effect it had on me in my youth,” spouts Les, “Now we get to sell PRIMUS bars and hang out with demented Oompa Loompas. Plus to top it off, it gives me an excuse to wear a purple, velvet waistcoat and brown top hat for the next 18 months.”
Primus, Over the Electric Grapevine: Insight into Primus and the World of Les Claypool published by Akashic Books will be available on 16th Sept 2014.
