www.landvermesser.tv/freeland

Landvermesser.tv ist ein Berliner Kulturprojekt, das Ort der Stadt mit fiktiven Geschichte besetzt. Es geht nicht um die Beschreibung offizieller touristischer, historischer oder sozialer Sehens-und Erlebenswuerdigkeiten, sondern um individuelleGeschichten. Jeder Flaneur verbindet mit den Strassen und Plaetzen individuelle Erinnerungen, Fiktionen und Kritik. Landvermesser.tv will diese oeffentlich zugaenglich machen.

In the late nineties in Berlin a group of loosely connected video artists developed a more specific form of club visuals. The images were directly related to the music. These films and film collages had nothing in common with traditional forms of visual accompaniment at musical events, such as the psychedelic oil on water slide shows of 60s and 70s disco or the laser shows at large raves. Instead, they took their often graphic images from the abstract, synthetic character of the music, its rhythms dictating the edit, filmed sequences were usually masked by effects. This was in deliberate contrast to an alienated rock music which was aggressively opposed to engaging with the medium of video. These producers called themselves VJs. Equivalent to DJs, they were video artists and electronic music fans, involved in running clubs or music labels, or even making techno themselves. Screendancing is the first retrospective exhibition about this phenomenon, it features works by visomat inc., Lillevan, Daniel Pflumm, Jörg X. Franzmann, monitor:automatique, JUTOJO, u-matic and Pfadfinderei from the formative period from 1999 to 2003.

screendancing

The Berg in the net

on returning from their holidays, they randomly met young music producer and remixer marco palazzo (a.k.a. keith) in a railway station; a collaborative project with him soon began, resulting in their first and homonymous album on bpitch control. it is again in a railway station that they created their first composition “escape destination”, followed by another 9, all connected to one another by the unifying theme of visions and travel (“when the window of a train takes you somewhere.” – we love.)

the band’s acoustic and electronic instruments charm with their bichromatic, black and white allure: a vintage heart-shaped guitar, a contemporary design self-made midi controller (which was sponsored by italian i&s furniture and fashion design company), a drum machine, and two keyboards, complementing piero and giorgia’s voices. their objective is to explore the relationships between various forms of aesthetic expression, such as sound, visual art, fashion and design.

we love are not “just another electro band”: their consistent collaboration with professional artists (amongst whom are david campanini, diana ferri, jamaica de marco and elliott james shaw) has produced original performance pieces. the band’s bichromatic video art provides the backdrop for the amazing pair of “soldiers of love”’s live sets, which are embellished by romantic and evocative contemporary style clothes and masks. art visuals caress the stage set with luminous random movements, as in a stream of consciousness gushing out of everyday life. actions rapidly take place one after the other, and one often feels overwhelmed by countless fleeting external stimuli as blank sheets of paper vanishing into nothingness.

in an innermost dimension of vision, there is always something which prevents us from being transparent: love.

we love (bpitch control) promo from we love on Vimeo.

Jazz and film noir are perfect bedfellows, as evidenced by the soundtrack of Louis Malle’s Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold). This dark and seductive tale is wonderfully accentuated by the late-’50s cool or bop music of Miles Davis, played with French jazzmen — bassist Pierre Michelot, pianist René Urtreger, and tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen — and American expatriate drummer Kenny Clarke. These complete recordings, including multiple alternate takes, evoke the sensual nature of a mysterious chanteuse and the contrasting scurrying rat race lifestyle of the times, when the popularity of the automobile, cigarettes, and the late-night bar scene were central figures. Davis had seen a screening of the movie prior to his making of this music, and knew exactly how to portray the smoky hazed or frantic scenes though sonic imagery, dictated by the trumpeter mainly in D-minor and C-seventh chords. Michelot is as important a figure as the trumpeter because he sets the tone, whether on four takes of the ballad/blues “Nuit sur les Champs-Élysées,” the last version a bit more swinging than the others; his probing one-note sound with the whispering horn of Davis during “Assassinat” and “Final”; and especially on his solo tracks, the slow walking “Ascenseur” (aka “Evasion de Julien”) and the stalking “Visite du Vigile.” While the mood of the soundtrack is generally dour and somber, the group collectively picks up the pace exponentially on the hard-swinging and freewheeling “Motel,” the hotter “Sequence Voiture,” and “Diner au Motel.” These selections with the entire quintet featuring Wilen effectively realize chase scenes or mind gears crazily turning. At times the distinctive Davis trumpet style is echoed into dire straits or death wish motifs, as on “Generique” or “L’Assassinat de Carala,” respectively, but the band can get kinda blue on takes of “Le Petit Bal,” with Davis and Wilen more unified up front. Clarke is his usual marvelous self, and listeners should pay close attention to the able Urtreger, by no means a virtuoso but a capable and flexible accompanist. This recording can stand proudly alongside Duke Ellington’s music from Anatomy of a Murder and the soundtrack of Play Misty for Me as great achievements of artistic excellence in fusing dramatic scenes with equally compelling modern jazz music.

www.dispatchwork.info

no words to explain my feeling when I found this project….

In the year of the World Cup in South Africa the topics “Football Culture in Africa”, “International Novelties” and, for the first time, “Football Films for Children and Youths” will be in the festival’s focus.

The best films will be awarded with two prizes: the “Golden 11” for the best fiction or documentary film and “11mm shortkicks” for the best short film. Film makers and production companies from around the world were called upon to enter their football films and compete for the two prizes until 14 February.

As a premiere, after the festival in Berlin, the organizers will present excerpts from their programme on a “11mm World Cup Roadshow” in other German cities.

The complete programme and all information about 11mm 2010 will be available by the
beginning of March under http://www.11-mm.de