yasujiro ozu - hitokomakura & one stone. and arcs and ears.

2 recent releases of sound artists dealing with "transcendental" filmmakers (ozu & bresson).

yasujiro ozu:

and/oar's 2 cd set: yasujiro ozu - hitokomakura

and/oar has invited sound artists to choose one or more "pillow shots" from ozu's films and create sound works.

and/oar goes on to explain: "pillow shots" are short poetic pauses that appear between the acting segments of his films. the term "pillow shot" was not coined by ozu himself, but several years after his passing in the early 1960s by a japanese journalist who was trying to draw a comparison of the intermediate scenes to "pillow words" found in traditional japanese poetry.
each artist who appears on this release was asked to choose one or more "pillow shots" to use as inspiration for their pieces

includes contributions by (among others):

marc behrens
keith berry
lawrence english
heribert friedl
bernhard gunter
john hudak
jason kahn
hitoshi kojo
dale lloyd
yoshio machida
steve roden
sawako
michael shannon
steinbruchel
sukora

there is much jouissance (as in discovering the north pole) to be found in these 2 cds.
in fact, extreme jouissance in works by: steve roden (playing some real pretty guitar), john hudak (using a contact mic connected to the pole of a koi windsock), keith berry, dale lloyd (more pretty guitar) and michael shannon.

robert bresson:

steve roden's alchemical transformation of the soundtrack lp of robert bresson's film "proces de jeanne d'arc": one stone. and arcs and ears.

i didn't feel qualified to speak about steve roden's new work, so i asked the great robert bresson to do so:

the soundtrack invented silence
(page 48)

absolute silence and silence obtained by a pianissimo of noises.
(49)

rhythmic value of a noise
noise of a door opening and shutting, noise of footsteps, etc, for the sake of rhythm
(52)

reorganize the unorganized noises (what you think you hear is not what you hear) of a street, a railroad station, an airport...play them back one by one in silence and adjust the blend.
(53)

to know thoroughly what business that sound (or that image) has there.
(60)

what is for the eye must not duplicate what is for the ear.
(61)

to have discernment (precision in perception).
(80)

the eye (in general) superficial, the ear profound and inventive. a locomotive's whistle imprints in us a whole railroad station.
(81)

(quotes from bresson's notes on the cinematographer)

also: i will be out of town for about a week and a half (making movies in north carolina), so please excuse the delays in service.

edward hopper

east river 1920-23

the sheridan theatre 1937

new york movie 1939

r3017

r3170

i have been drooling over the edward hopper catalogue raisonné now for a while (it is $250.00). since i can't afford it, i look at it from time to time at work. here are some images from volume IV, the cd-rom of his works, including his journals.
a great book on hopper's journals/notebooks is: edward hopper: a journal of his work which is facsimiles of the notebooks (a selection only) assembled and maintained by his wife jo (now out-of-print).

«der process»

page 1

page 30

from the kafka project the trial, "im dom" chapter

venezia, ghost

venice at night

fritz arno wagner, cinematographer & 13 stills from mabuse

fritz arno wagner (1894-1958)

key cinematographer of the german expressionist movement, wagner worked most notable with directors f.w. murnau, g.w. pabst and fritz lang. wagner received his training from the academy of fine arts in paris, then went on to work at pathe film company as a clerk.
his most noteworthy contributions can be seen in murnau's nosferatu, pabst's die liebe der jeanne ney and die 3groschenoper, and lang's destiny, spione, m and das testament des dr. mabuse.
"but it was in the portrayal of horror that the camera of murnau and fritz arno wagner excelled" the haunted screen by lotte eisner
the influence of wagner's camera can seen notably in american film noir with its fascination with blackness (lack of light, the obsession with night), the visual influence and use of modernist architecture in film, and the persistent depiction and glorification of vice and sin.

das testament des dr. mabuse 1933
(d. fritz lang):

13 stills from the opening sequence of fritz lang's das testament des dr. mabuse (at the forger's factory)
a beautiful early example of film noir. the pulsing drone soundtrack is also very unique, the other 2 films i immediately think of which feature such an intense audio abstraction are: the beginning of peckinpah's the getway and lynch's eraserhead.

some films:
-schloß vogeloed 1921 (d. f.w. murnau)
-der müde tod 1921 aka destiny (d. fritz lang)
for great stills from this film look here
-de brennende acker 1922 aka burning soil (d. f.w. murnau)
-nosferatu, eine symphonie des grauens 1922 (d. f.w. murnau)
-die liebe der jeanne ney 1927 (d. georg wilhelm pabst)
-spione 1928 (d. fritz lang)
-tagebuch einer verlorenen 1929 aka diary of a lost girl (d. georg wilhelm pabst)
-westfront 1918 1930 (d. georg wilhelm pabst)
-die 3groschenoper 1931 (d. georg wilhelm pabst)
-m 1931 (d. fritz lang)
-kameradschaft 1931 aka comradeship (d. georg wilhelm pabst)
-das testament des dr. mabuse 1933 (d. fritz lang)
-der mann, der sherlock holmes war 1937 (d. karl hartl)

more info:
cinematographers site
film reference
ny times
allmovie
dvd beaver: nosferatu
dvd beaver: spione
chiaroscuro study of nosferatu
sensesofcinema on mabuse

dreaming out of windows

joseph cornell's dreams

december 18, 1965:

dreaming out of windows


march 8, 1968:

surprise span of the night - going on 5 am
vs. earlier awakenings in halluc. experience...

eggs + nest converted into children


november 15, 1969:

field mouse
dream of mouse
live coals walking right into them unscathed

new book of catherine corman's anthology of dream entries from cornell's diaries, published by exact change of cambridge mass.

(forgive my multiple entries)

antonio lópez garcía, from la mancha

maria, 1972, pencil on paper

home of antonio lópez torres (uncle), 1972-75, pencil on paper

2 drawings by antonio lópez garcía, painter from la mancha

some fine sites to cogitate on:
tim lowly site
antonio lópez garcía: timeless realism in a spanish key
(which has this quote from lópez garcía: "the best art of [antiquity] achieves an emotional intensity that transcends individual achievement, its creators...were expressing a collective feeling that was beyond their individual limitations as artists. that, to me, is quite wonderful. the art of antiquity is like a paradise lost.")
víctor erice's film el sol del membrillo

bright lights of moscow stations flashing into view and vanishing again behind me

i was on a train, travelling by day, but it was winter-time - late december, the very depths - and to add to it the train was heading north - to leningrad - so it was quickly darkening on the other side of the windows - bright lights of moscow stations flashing into view and vanishing again behind me like the scattering of some invisible hand - each snow-veiled suburban platform with its fleeting row of lamps melting into one fiery ribbon - the dull drone of a station rushing past, as if the train were roaring over a bridge - the sound muffled by the double-glazed windows with frames not quite hermetically sealed into fogged-up, half-frozen panes of glass - pierced even so by the station-lights forcefully etching their line of fire - and beyond, the sense of boundless snowy wastes - and the violent sway of the carriage from side to side - pitching and rolling - especially in the end corridor - and outside, once complete darkness had fallen and only the hazy whiteness of snow was visible

from leonid tsypkin's novel summer in baden-baden (first sentence)

m swiezynski leaving berlin at night to venice
(by train) 2005

extract - portraits of soundartists

new release from nonvisualobjects

format: book (hardcover, 96 pages) + 2 cds
limited edition: 500
graphic design my raphael moser

cd 1
01 keith berry | finger pointing at the moon
02 richard chartier | a field for recordings 2
03 taylor deupree | live in osaka
04 heribert friedl | nbvto
05 richard garet | précis
06 andy graydon | microclimates for paliku
07 bernhard günter | listen to what you see (audio
--- sample of location of all koblenz photos)
08 john hudak | radio
09 i8u | steganography
10 dean king | in absentia
11 dale lloyd | provisional

cd 2
01 roel meelkop | (hole in a heap)
02 will montgomery | split chance
03 tomas philips | each more melodious note
04 steve roden | air into form/voice into breath
05 jos smolders | aiolos (vangsaa interior)
06 steinbrüchel | parallel
07 nao sugimoto (mondii) | nature out
08 asmus tietchens | vierte beisetzung in wien
09 toshiya tsunoda | scenery of vibration/listening
--- to the reflection of points (@westspace)
10 ubeboet | lux vivens
11 michael vorfeld | geste

a simply stunning new release from the nvo label, with beautiful minimalist design by r. moser. includes sublime tracks from artists i had not heard of (dean king, roel meelkop, will montgomery, ubeboet, michael vorfield) and some heavies such as keith berry, richard chartier, john hudak (an unbelievable track), dale lloyd, steve roden, asmus tietchens and others.
the aim of the release as stated by nvo:
"we try to look at the motivation and intention behind the sound production from different perspectives, to possibly allow for a new/extended approach to this form of music."
"in this book we would like to present these other sides of their work to allow crossreferences/crosslinks to open up new aspects of the music."
certainly one of the best objects/listening experiences i have come across in a while.

having replied with his "good evening", he became surpised at himself

many fine books on melancholia, that i look forward to browsing when visiting the home of mr. schinkel

title from f. dostoevsky: the eternal husband 1870 (page 154 pevear/volokhonsky)

untitled 1978, michael heizer

from wright auction catalogue 22 may 2007, lot 508

prehistoric architecture in the eastern united states

page 75, perkins: scott, mississippi

prehistoric architecture in the eastern united states by william n. morgan, 1980 mit press

great book on pre-land art structures in the united states, actually native american architecture from about 2200 bc to ad 1500.

the essential cinema, condensed

or, the 30 best films ever made (according to the 19th century architect karl friedrich schinkel)

1. robert bresson: pickpocket 1959
2. andrei tarkovsky: andrei rublev 1969
3. akira kurosawa: seven samurai 1954
4. michael snow: la région centrale 1971
5. ernie gehr: signal-germany on the air 1982-85
6. jean-pierre melville: le samouraï 1967
7. john ford: my darling clementine 1946
8. william wellman: the ox-bow incident 1943
9. bela tarr: satantango 1994
10. howard hawks: red river 1948
11. martin scorsese: mean streets 1973
12. wong kar-wai: in the mood for love 2001
13. anthony mann: the tin star 1957
14. john huston: the treasure of the sierra madre 1948
15. john cassavetes: the killing of a chinese bookie 1976
16. jules dassin: rififi 1955
17. robert siodmak: criss cross 1949
18. stanley kubrick: the killing 1956
19. david lean: brief encounter 1946
20. krzysztof kieslowski: trois couleurs: bleu, blanc, rouge 1993-94
21. terrence malik: the thin red line 1998
22. roman polanski: chinatown 1974
23. micheal powell & emeric pressburger: 49th parallel 1941
24: nicholas ray: in a lonely place 1950
25. william friedkin: the french connection 1971
26. ingmar bergman: scenes from a marriage 1973 & 1974
27. michelangelo antonioni: l'eclisse 1962
28. robert altman: mccabe & mrs. miller 1971
29. woody allen: broadway danny rose 1984
30. carl theodor dreyer: ordet 1955

the making of this list has been on my mind quite a bit lately. i was looking at a site that had director's 10 best films, and decided i would choose my 10 favourites.
but after working on it for a while, i found it to be impossible, and a bit depressing. to pick one great film over another seemed absurd to me.
i decided to choose films, not that i thought were important, but simply films that have had a big influence over me and shaped the way i see and think about the world. the hardest part was to choose one film by a given director (which had to be a restriction for obvious reasons). for robert bresson; i equally like mouchette, pickpocket, au hasard balthazar and a man escaped, so how did i pick pickpocket? i have no idea. i think maybe because i saw it first and it is the most entertaining of his films (for me). this list, as you can see, has made it to 30. there is no order to it, that would be disrespectful i think to these fine films.
(for a larger list, go to the essential cinema)

4 images of beauty and abstraction from krzysztof kieslowski's: trois couleurs: rouge 1994

the tin star

a very exciting opening sequence found in anthony mann's the tin star, 1957. masterfully photographed my loyal griggs.
the sequence is 10 shots over 2 minutes and thirty seconds. henry fonda as a bounty hunter rides into town with a dead man.
reminded me of tarkovsky, or the ending of the passenger, but without drawing so much attention to its form.
also, take a look at this months film comment for an interesting article on anthony mann by richard combs.

prouvé in queens

jean prouvé house beside the queensboro bridge, awaiting its sale at christie's.
more images here

the dark side of nature

some nice books to read during the summer or just finished:

-fyodor dostoevsky, the idiot 1898 (everyman's library)
-konstantin mochulsky, dostoevsky: his life and work 1967 (princeton)
-leonid tsypkin, summer in baden-baden 1981 (new directions)
-robert walser, selected stories 1907-1929 (nyrb)
-francis ponge, selected poems 1935-1974 (faber and faber)
-george macdonald, the complete fairy tales mid to late 19th century (penguin)
-georg buchner, complete plays and other writings early 19th century (penguin)
-p.e. salles gomes. jean vigo 1957 (faber and faber)
-ian christie & andrew moor, the cinema of michael powell 2005 (bfi)
-vija celmins: dessins/drawings (centre pompidou)
-barbara larson , the dark side of nature: science, society, and the fantastic in the work of odilon redon 2005 (penn state)
-making pictures: a century of european cinematography 2005 (abrams)



some nice cds:
-circle, miljard
-bob dylan & the band, a tree with roots
-alice coltrane, journey in satchidananda & ptah & the el daoud
-the band, music from big pink

parker 51 & chopin

some beautiful things (shot in soft focus like garbo)

parker 51s

parker 51 ink

montblanc meisterstück hommage à frédéric chopin