This one's for you Marcus

A new song by David Lynch. Watch it here, directed by the man himself. Obviously.

Lichtspiel Mutation 1: Whitechapel

I finally (finally!) got around to uploading the piece I wrote for the Unsound festival in Kraków last year. This version is based on a recording of the rehearsal with the Sinfonietta Cracovia the day before the actual performance, and has been painstakingly edited, processed and tarted up to sound as good as possible, along with the electronic music track which is loosely based on audio from the original film.

Long story short: The work is based on an old "Jack the Ripper" film from 1953, "Man in the Attic". I've used footage and audio from the film and then remixed it into something completely different, and on top of this I've composed a score for 45-piece string orchestra. The resulting work is way more abstract than the actual film it's based on, more suggestive and dreamlike. I've slowed down the footage and utilized extreme contrast and darkness to create something more like a 'shadow play', if you catch my drift.

I'm planning on making more works in the "Lichtspiel Mutations" series, all based on old films in the public domain but hopefully they'll all be very different and for different constellations. My next planned 'mutation' will probably be for solo violin, electronic music and animation. Looking forward to that!

Alan Moore interviews Brian Eno

This is a radio interview from 2005. I've always enjoyed hearing Alan Moore speaking, and I've always enjoyed hearing Brian Eno speaking. So what could be better than the two of them in conversation? 28 mins. Enjoy!

http://n3ta.com/radio/?p=46

via Coilhouse

Jerry Williams: Number One

Ever since I was a kid back in the 1980s, I've seen Swedish rock'n'roller Jerry Williams as something of a pathetic, chubby, middle-aged rocker trying to relive the 1950's in the most embarrasing way. And truthfully, I still feel that way about him to some degree.

But I have to admit that this video and song -- from 1963, way before I was born -- has got to be one of the most wonderful songs and videos ever to come out of Sweden. Both unintentionally silly and unintenionally nightmarish, it has a hypnotic, dream-like David Lynch quality to it that transcends the sum of its parts and becomes something absolutely sublime. I love it.

Happy b-day, Aphex!

Ok, I missed it by one day, but nevertheless: one of my biggest musical and artistic inspirations, electronica artist Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin, turned 40 yesterday. I thank thee for thine legacy, here's to a long and healthy life.

For those unaccustomed to his work, check out this short film directed by Chris Cunningham:

Happy b-day, Jenjen!

This one's for you.
¨

Happy b-day, Grandert!

This one's for you.

Weekend WTF: Ittma Hohah

Ok, here's a Swedish classic from 1947 (edit: the song is from '47, this film clip is from 1956)... Povel Ramel in yellowface performing his song about Ittma Hohah Om Butn Baba, self-tormentor. I put it under the WTF header especially for those of you who don't speak Swedish, for whom it must be quite the incomprehensible mindfuck... but I couldn't resist providing a (rough, flawed and 'liberty-taking') translation of the lyrics below. Enjoy!

Wherever my skinny body is shipped,
it does not need protection,
I can withstand all of life's pains

Of all the people I know,
nasty neighbours and enemies,
no one can torment me like I can.

For I am Ittma Hohah Om Butn Baba, self-tormentor
and I come all the way from Chitn Potn Bah,
just south of Potn Chitn Buh, in India

It would take several days to list all I can suffer
Every saturday I burn myself at the stake
I eat glass and I love soup made out of nails
In my breakfast sandwich I put arsenic

For I am Ittma Hohah Om Butn Baba, self-tormentor
and I like it better here than in Chitn Potn Bah,
just south of Potn Chitn Buh, in India

I was going to show you two or three of my favourite tricks
but at the moment my cobra, who bites, has a cold
my fire breathing technique is very refined
but at the moment my throat is ruined from hard liquor

So you won't get to see any tricks today, cause I'm not feeling well
But if you doubt me, then you can all go to Chitn Potn Bah,
just south of Potn Chitn Buh, in India

Weekend WTF: Maruosa

The WTF to end all WTFs. (Warning: make sure to turn down the volume a bit first)

Adolescence and transgression

This is a fascinating full length documentary about the infamous Norwegian black metal scene, which, beside the actual music, is a scene of church burnings, suicide, murder and prison sentences. What fascinates me most about all this is what can happen to a person during adolescence, this window of time in a person's development where he or she is not quite a child and not quite an adult, but still has the characteristics and abilities of both, and the possibilities to take life into any of millions of radical and transgressive directions.

For most people, this is a 'phase' that runs its course and then they enter the 'normality' of adult conformity. But some people stay there, way into their teens, their twenties, sometimes their whole life. I am fascinated by these people. These are the people who have the potential to become great artists -- or, just as easily, cult leaders, conspiracy theorists and mass murderers.

At the moment I kind of see adolescence as the transgressive and 'magical' (for better or worse) period in one's development where all windows and possibilities are open, when values are questioned and new values formed, when everything is possible and anything can happen. It is what drove two adolescent girls (portrayed in Peter Jackson's wonderful 1994 docudrama Heavenly Creatures) to both experience the most magical aspects of life but also to commit the horrible crime they did. I also think it is what transforms some well-off, well-bred Norwegian boys into what they become, as shown in this documentary.

Or maybe I'm just full of it. In any case, if you have the 90 minutes, this is an interesting documentary to watch.

via Coilhouse.

My mix on Fluid Radio

I was recently asked by Fluid Radio to compile a playlist of music for their website -- if you're looking for some 90 minutes of weird and wonderful music, head on over here!

Salad Fingers 9

It's out of the bag:

Interview

I got interviewed for this blog. Interesting questions and a lot of other interesting interviews there as well!

Weekend WTF

WTF?

Computer Beat -- Ja

Upcoming project...

Since David Firth has now publicly announced this on his Twitter, I guess I won't have to be secretive about it any more; I'm composing the soundtrack for the next episode of his popular and creepy "Salad Fingers" cartoon series, the first new episode in four years. This'll be my first collaboration with Mr. Firth since 2008's stop motion "Crooked Rot", which I wrote about earlier on this blog.

Not familiar with Salad Fingers? Familiarize yourself with this, a representative early episode from 2004.

Blödes Orkester

Blödes Orchester from white tube on Vimeo.

“Angeordnet wie ein Sinfonieorchester verwandeln sich rund 200 historische Staubsauger, Mixer und Waschmaschinen in Musikinstrumente. Sie bilden ein Ensemble, das der Dirigent, Cembalist und Komponist Michael Petermann alias Weisser Rausch nach acht Jahren Vorarbeit nunmehr vollendet hat: Das Blöde Orchester.”

This might be interersting for you experimental musicians out there. I think the idea is cool, although the music is not so much my cup of tea. But funny anyway!

Midnight Films at MaerzMusik

This week, as part of the MaerzMusik festival for experimental music, Babylon Mitte are screening interesting films at midnight each night. Tonight they'll screen Greenaway's amazing ZOO (A Zed and Two Noughts), tomorrow Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, and on wednesday one of my all time favourites, David Lynch's Eraserhead. I haven't seen it in a theatre before so I'll be all over it.

If you're in Berlin, be sure to check out the program! Tickets are 6.50 EUR.

Odboy & Erordog, episode 2

There's finally a good recording of the chamber quartet for my "Odboy & Erordog, episode 2" piece, and I'm proud to present the whole work for all to enjoy online. The possibility of a commission for episode 3 is around the corner, so cross your fingers and maybe we'll soon get to see what fate has in store for the poor boy and his dog.



(Thanks to The Peärls Before Swïne Experience, Studio Element and the Society of Swedish Composers for making the recording possible.)

monster mash

Check out this cool song by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett & The Cryptkickers from 1962. It was a reaction on the dance crazes that were around those days like the Twist and the Mashed Potato. He had a hard time selling it at first, but once it was out it became a million seller in the USA and UK. I love the parade of monster in this clip: