Music in the air

Works in progress, studio, 8.11.23

    Had a most productive day in the studio yesterday, partially finishing up with prepping several new canvases and working on three new small works on panels and canvas. Before I started, I was easing into the session, trying to figure out what I wanted to listen to and whether I wanted to listen to anything at all. I was noodling around on YouTube, seeing what I may have missed while I was away recently. After refreshing my home page a couple of times, I saw a video for the latest song from Fever Ray (Karin Dreijer), a musician that I became aware of back in 2009 or so. I remember at that time seeing a video of her's for a song called When I Grow Up, and really responded to the music, vocals and the aesthetics of the video. I didn't keep up with Fever Ray much past that, but was curious to see where they were now creatively. The new song, "North", is every bit as haunting and beautiful as I remember of her earlier work. 

    Well, I went down a rabbit hole and watched a few other videos from FR before discovering The Knife, a band that she had with brother, Olof. I don't know how to describe the music of The Knife, but I can say that it's highly addictive and energetic, based on this concert video that helped amp up my own energy in the studio yesterday: The Knife-Live at Terminal 5 (2014). Check it out, I hope it gives you the boost that it gave me!

    Another band that got me through the day was Young Fathers, a band out of Scotland that I found out about sometime last year. YF is another band that's unique in their approach to musicianship, blending aspects of hip hop, rock, afrobeat and more. To a certain extent, they remind me of TV On The Radio. Check out the concert video here: Young Fathers live at Best Kept Secret 2023. Lastly, again going down another rabbit hole, I found Son Lux, a new-to-me band that caught my attention after listening to the former couple of concerts. Son Lux, not sure how to position their sound, but watch them here and see for yourself: Son Lux live at AB-Acienne Belgique. 

    Watching and listening to these concert videos definitely raised the energy in the studio around the rather mundane task of painting the edges of five newly stretched canvases, waiting for them to dry and working on other pieces in between. Working on the other pieces wasn't mundane, but you get the point. It would be great to hear what you think about any of these videos or better yet, what gets you through some of the routine things that have to be done in the studio (organizing, preparing surfaces, etc...). Let me know in the comments below!

TM