From my previous posts about music you can see I like electronic music a lot. Not the boom-boom-noise kind of music but the more melodic sort. I also somehow prefer electronic bands with female vocals which add sort of a soft touch to the music. Furthermore I like the fact that most of the electronic bands also translate their music in an audiovisual way with great and original videos. In this blogpost I want to show some of my favourite electronic bands:
iamamiwhoami – Y (Brilliant audiovisual project, my favourite!)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEoGQU_k78k&w=560&h=315]
Ladytron – Destroy Everything You Touch
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTTwlAT_AwU&w=560&h=315]
Oh Land – White Nights. (I especially like the surrealism and randomness of the videoclip.)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LcL7MAqwOc&w=560&h=315]
Planningtorock- Doorway
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/19714047 w=500&h=281]
Fever Ray – Seven
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX07gCjT7dA&w=420&h=315]
Marscheaux – Summer
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx1R9jBC9FM&w=420&h=315]
The Golden Filter – Voluspa
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3kP9F6sPXE&w=420&h=315]
Crystal Castles – Black Panther (Their music is great but the videos are not that special although this one is kind of nice because it shows the game Tron from the 80s)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR3XB-982Bg&w=420&h=315]
Lamb – There she walks (loved this one at Lowlands festival when it was displayed on three big screens)
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/26069756 w=500&h=275]
Cloetta Paris – Secret Eyes (unfortunately they didn’t make any videos.. but the song is great)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBZYyZ4joX8&w=420&h=315]
Another one by iamamiwhoami because I really love their music and videos:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw0JmSRMXkY&w=560&h=315]
My last pinterest post was from week 9 so I missed a week. Sorry for that, was a bit busy. But hopefully you enjoyed yourself with my other blogposts
So this time another weekly pinspiration post:
Afloat zine by Harry Diaz I read a post on the etsy blog about zines and found this lovely graphic zine. I have some plans to make some of my own zines as well.
Daytime fireworks, you don’t see this that often.
Painted wood by Cathy McMurray
A lovely print by Cathy McMurray
DIY: Colourful cubes
Cute drawings
Garden cards by Rifle Paper Co.
Serenity
There’s nothing that can motivate you more than some inspirational music. Last week I was looking at ‘recommended artists’ on last.fm and found the electro duo Cloetta Paris. I listened to some of their songs and I immediately loved it! Their songs are happy and make you want to dance. Their only album was recorded in 2008 so I hope they will release something new in the near future.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc8brq0iNk4]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBZYyZ4joX8]
In this category I’m telling you something about products I like. In this posts I want to introduce you to Kikkerland.
Kikkerland makes fun colourful gadgets and home accessories. I like Kikkerland because their gadgets look great but are also useful. Lots of gadgets from other makers are fun but nothing more than that. Kikkerland creates cool things that actually come to use like a cushions that look like logs , a pencil sharper that looks like a vintage camera, a solar powered radio, kaleidoscope coasters and a funny family of wind up toys.
Awika
Blok Power Strip
Solar powered radio
Kaleido coasters
Log head rest
USB cabels
Camera pencil sharpener
Tea for two
Flip clock
One of the artists that inspire me the most is graphic designer and photographer Storm Thorgerson. Storm makes images for album covers in a surrealistic way. What I like about his style is that the ideas are very original and you have to look at a photo a little bit longer too see all the small references and the idea behind it. In the introduction of the book “Taken by Storm” Storm says “We like to think of ourselves as translators. The main objective is to translate an audio event, the music, into a visual event, the cover design. Our hope is to represent visually the music in its many diverse aspects and as faithfully as we can, although not always in a very straightforward manner. We invariably listen to the music in question, read and re-read the lyrics and talk in depth to the musicians about their work”.
In my own music photography I also this philosophy. A lot of bands are very happy when they finally release their first album. They put a lot of time, effort and money in the process of getting good quality recordings but a lot of them forget that the album also has a cover that has to be of good quality as well. A lot of bands just use a photo of themselves (mostly an old one that is of low quality) or a design that’s similar to the design of another band they like. But especially nowadays , when the music industry is changing a lot, not just the music but also the cover of the album should stand out to become successful as a band. I like to work together with a band to create more than just another generic band photo and dive deeper into the music to get an original image that fits the band.
In his work Storm Thorgerson uses all kinds of objects to translate his ideas and what I most like about that is that he tries to do as much as possible for real. “Doing it for real is our avowed philosophy – rather the computer in the head than the one on the desk” Storm says. So he doesn’t use photoshop to put a giant pig between four towers, he really lets somebody make a giant pig and put it between the towers. (funny detail: the wind was too strong and the pig broke lose and they even had to interrupt the the plain flights into Heathrow for a while until the pig was caught).
I really like that philosophy because it is the same thing I like to achieve in my photography. I also combine music and photography and also try to find an original idea and translate that in a somewhat surreal setting. The only thing I unfortunately don’t have already is a budget to create objects myself. Sometimes I have this wonderful idea in my head but I don’t have the means or money to translate it into a photo. So I have to think in more affordable and simpler ways to communicate my ideas in a photo but still keep it interesting and surprising. But who knows, maybe in the future I can start some bigger projects. But besides that, creating interesting photos with limited resources is also challenging and something that makes me think in creative ways.
In this post are some of my favourite works made my Storm. If you like it, have a look on his website for more: stormthorgerson.com/ And if you really like it buy one of his books to get a better view at the photos and read all the stories about how they were made. I’ve got “Taken by Storm” and “Mind over Matter – the images of pink floyd” on my bookshelve but they’re not available on his website any more. But the new book “The Raging Storm” should be just as good.
All different sorts of inspiration found on pinterest
Colour zoned workspace.
Diy idea: painting porcelain mugs
by Zander Olsen
Light Up by The Upcycle Family (great name)
Chip teacup! ♥
I love this colourful bedroom
Silence/Shapes by Filippo Minelli
Flowers. Still can’t wait for spring but unfortunately it’s still cold and rainy outside..