Lily Donaldson video by Nick Knight & Ruth Hogben for ShowStudio using Mechanical Waltz by Philip Sheppard
I’ve been involved with a few projects with Nick Knight and his team at ShowStudio – despite my being to the fashion world what Boris Johnson is to speed skating…
The most insanely enjoyable of these was a project where we made 24 films in 24 hours – where the great John Gosling (Mekon) and I provided the live music. I ended up being styled by the head of YSL – Stefano Pilati (I was probably the chubbiest person he’s ever dealt with) and the whole photoshoot & film shoot was turned into a catalogue for Yves Saint Laurent.
He’s a real gent.
Just found a scene from that session… Jessica Miller looks at me as if she’s used to being written on while a random cellist plays at her…
An extract from my video diary from the day of the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony.
The Chinese rehearsal was extraordinary. I was able to talk to many of the performers, and filmed them from up close as they hurtled towards the stadium roof. This was shot on a very small HD camera – I’d drunk a lot of coffee so excuse the odd shake. (Also I’m a better musician than film maker – so please excuse any bad edits etc).
The most striking image was the silken volcano – really simple but very classy.
The music is a piece I wrote for string orchestra – as yet untitled…
Meanwhile our handover cast were getting ready in the compound for the very brief bus rehearsal.
This animation is pretty gory.. but cool. When it gets to the more gothic 3rd section you can hear a piece of mine called keep walking…
If you like it – the full track is below plus the link to the mp3 if you’d rather hear it on your personal gramophone!
Pssst! Pass it on animation
►
listen to the full length track here:[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/pssst.mp3]
This from BoingBoing:
In “Legends of Exos” we are launched into a psychedelic land of stained glass, tracking a warrior on his way to battle. His attack segues into a lovable world of fuzzy woodland creatures but concludes with a finale that Burton fans will find comforting.
PSST!3 Pass It On is collaborative film project is composed of 17 films made by 51 teams of directors and animators from around the globe. Each film is broken into three parts — beginning, middle, and end — and each part is created by a different team.
I’ve just found something on youtube that I’ve been searching for for years – literally…
I’ve been so lucky to have been able to play the cello with some of the most amazing musicians, but by far the greatest was Jeff Buckley. Of course he’s shot up the charts recently through his beautiful cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah – surely the antithesis of X-Factor..?
This is Henry Purcell’s Dido’s Lament from Dido and Æneas. But listen to this – Just. listen. to. it…
I mean, no-one can sing like that. No-one should be physically able to sing like that.
Jeff Buckley singing, withpianist Catherine Edwards, violinist Ian Belton and me on cello, in Elvis Costello’s Meltdown Festival, July 1st 1995.
I remember, this singer arrived really late, just before the show, dishevelled, all cheekbones, cool hair, black jeans and the biggest boots you’ve ever seen supporting a rake thin body.
He apologised – got out his music – a kid’s exercise book with the lyrics of the songs written out in a crazy biro scrawl. – If a word was written high up the page, well then it meant it was a high note.
At one point he asked me what country he was in… he was confused between Germany and the UK that day as I think he’d flown in with little sleep.
And then he sang.
As Elvis Costello remembers;
When he started singing Dido’s Lament at the rehearsal, there were all these classical musicians who could not believe it. Here’s a guy shuffling up on-stage and singing a piece of music normally thought to be the property of certain types of specifically developed voice, and he’s just singing, not doing it like a party piece, but doing something with it.
That’s an understatement… I remember the lights being pretty bright and the silhouette of his frame as he bent almost double to wrench every ounce of meaning from a song written 300 hundred years ago. Better than any classical musician I’ve ever heard.
As he was singing, a photographer shuffled along past the feet of the audience in the front row at the Queen Elizabeth Hall to get a shot, unaware that they were for that second the most hated person in London, and got a good clout round the head for their troubles from someone who should remain nameless.
I can’t remember anything straight after that, but Elvis Costello wrote in Mojo:
My last memory of him was at the little party in the green room afterwards. There were all these people sitting round Jeff who’d never met before – Fretwork, the viol group, a classical pianist and some jazz player – all talking and laughing about music. He’d charmed everybody. I’d much rather remember that than anything.
I just wish i could find a photo…
Here’s an extract from a Radio 4 Documentary when I talked about it:
