Category: Art Gallery Show 2011

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The closing track of Sunday Morning is Gotta sleep now. It’s an atmospheric soundscape created from a series of guitar loops, with additional vocals by Susannah Legge. Originally clocking in around 7mins, it was cut back to a rather short 2:27 so it would fit on the B-side of a (future) vinyl release. In the future I’ll put up an extended mix of it which is closer to the original… or maybe even a live recording of it… it seems to be a bit of a crowd please-er at the gigs we’ve been doing.

Media artist Lucy Benson too on the track for the art exhibition at Dear Patti Smith Gallery. She is currently based in Berlin, and makes works from live video technologies and projected images.

Lucy’s work ‘Time to sleep’ was a highlight at the exhibition, and any on-line video representation of the will not do it justice, as it will not accurately represent the impact of the dark-swirling imagery which sat in somewhat seemless harmony with the music. Photographic images below seem to represent the mood better. (Thanks to Penny Lane and Anna Gilby for the photos)

Lucy writes of the process: “The music of Winterpark invokes a particular feeling of being both utterly present in one moment yet adrift in a dizzying sense of timelessness. Time To Sleep embodies this effect perfectly and also echoes it in the story of the lyrics. The voice floats and ripples through a landscape, sounding not separate from the environment, but as if it flows through every element of it.
My process for this piece was to to make a location study, returning to the same spot day after day and letting the camera observe the natural environment until the elements of that environment transcended their moment and place. The footage is not treated in any way; the abstraction is the result of the conditions of tide, wind and sky coming together on one particular day.”

listen to gotta sleep now:

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You’re timing’s all wrong is a quirky sonic experiment, that oscillates between a rather sweet acoustic guitar melody and the wonderfully crazy nebulaphone by bleep labs.

I love crazy musical gadgets and the idea that machines can be chaotic and unpredictable. This is i’m sure why i don’t really want to fix my juno 106… because it sounds so awesome when it’s just a little bit broken.

anyway… back to the track and the work in the exhibition…

Adele Winteridge teamed up with a couple of her pals at Foolscap Studio Elly Russell and Siam Pascale to create the quite beautiful balancing act of “Fine Balance”. A live mobile created from timber, paint, seedlings and wool.

Adele writes of the process: “The song to me is a really happy vibrant song with undertones of a balancing act between the melody and the overriding glitches. It is reminiscent of a sunny day in a car, driving around the hills… or turning your music up really loudly and riding around the streets of Melbourne on your bike. Sun through the trees and wind in the hair.
The piece is a “Calderseque” kinetic mobile that can hang inside or outside. The plants are balanced from different lengths of dowel with coloured wool threaded through them. Each arm holds a seedling, as they grow at different rates (plant variations) they send the mobile into different balancing positions, changing the aesthetic of the piece daily.”

Adele also writes about it in her Foolscap Blog.

Listen to Your timing’s all wrong here:

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Track 12… The Night Beetle is the first single from Sunday Morning.

OK, I confess… i’m obsessed with the Beatles… and with Sunday Morning I really wanted to create an album that flowed like the B-Side of Abbey Road, where each track seamlessly flows into the next, despite the diversity. This track, is a homage of sorts to the Beatles, with my attempt to channel George Harrison’s guitar solos.

Reviewed in the Age EG, Craig Mathieson writes: “WINTERPARK have spent several years on the periphery of the local indie-electro scene but with the lovingly crafted vintage pop of The Night Beetle (***), Matt Ridgway’s project sounds ready to take the spotlight with the forthcoming Sunday Morning album.

Accomplished film maker and video artist Gavin Youngs, shows off his rather somewhat twisted sense of humour to create an awesome video work entitled “Night Light” that has to be watched in its entirety!

Gavin writes of his work: “The 1:56 mark of The night beetle sparked the real inspiration for the piece. Referencing a television ad from the 80’s the work looks at what lights your sleep.”

FYI… Gavin has previously worked with Winterpark to create the amazing video clip for Cold Feet, off the first Winterpark album One Night Alone.

Watch Gavin’s work “Night Light” here:

Why not check out the Montag Remix of The Night Beetle here:

 

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Track 11, Neighbours on ice is definitely the darkest moment on the new album. This track was written as a response to some fairly erratic and insomniac moments from next door. The beat is deliberately off-kilter and guitar noise bursting at the seams… on the edge of losing it.

Artist Trudy Moore creates 3-dimensional drawings of objects that echo an almost impulsive response within people. T

Trudy writes of her work: In response to the gritty, uneasy texture of Neighbours on ice I have used paper and charcoal to take a three-dimensional rubbing of milk crates – an object commonly associated with laneways and other unnoticed spaces of the urban landscape.
Through this work I am considering how the fragile, temporary representation of these objects might translate as a metaphor for an edgy, alternate state of mind.

Listen to Neighbours on ice:

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Well, back to blogging about the gallery exhibiton! nearly there… just 4 more works to write about!

Track 10 is called Five times, and I have to admit that i have had a long-term obsession with the first Unkle project album, and love all that awesome drum programming by DJ Shadow… so this track’s inspiration was to create something that was really beat driven, whilst still retaining the Winterpark ‘atmos’ thing.

Architect, Haslett Grounds created a wonderful sculptural work for the exhibition to go along with the track… I think the pictures (taken by Penny Lane) capture it fairly well!

Haslett writes of his work: “Shifting scale can shift perspective. The work invites you to inhabit a space both smaller and larger than the place in which it resides. The song reminded me experiencing things vast and wonderful beyond the realm of the man made. Of escapes made all the more special when shared.”

 
Listen to Five times here:
  

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Track 9, Hey Love will be the second single from the new album “Sunday Morning”. Susannah Legge (ex-The Hampdens) contributes her wonderful vocals to the track.

Long term Winterpark collaborator, film-maker Jarrah Gurrie, who had used a number of Winterpark songs in his films… most notably “Wall Kids” in his short film “Centre of the universe”. Jarrah also made the video clip for Winterpark for Wall kids when we were in NYC a couple of years back. Check it out here.

For the exhibition, Jarrah created a video response to the track called “To let you down”, it references Hey Love not via the soundtrack, but through visual imagery. Jarrah’s writes of his work; “Time stands still in the moment the heart snaps.”


to let you down from Jarrah Gurrie on Vimeo.

listen to Hey love:

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The title track “Sunday Morning” is an ode to the joys of lying in bed, coffee and breakfasts, walking in the park and love.

Who better to share the love than the amazing and wonderful Jessica Racklyeft. Jess has a knack of creating works of wonder and whimsy, that capture essence and emotion in a moment. Her artist response to Sunday Morning is a quasi-religious painting that embodies all these things.

Jess says of her work: “This pretty track got me thinking about the Sunday spirit – for me, ultimately lying in bed with the sun and no plans… time/quiet/peace. I wanted to represent elements of religious iconography, since perhaps church on a Sunday is where some people found their moment of reflection from the rest of the busy week… Like the track says, Sundays make you remember that everything’s all right.”

Listen to Sunday Morning here:

and read more on Jess’ Blog here.

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Friday nights forever is one of my favorite tracks off the new album… it all came together with a sort of great synchronicity with some strange guitar loops I made for a different project fitting somewhat seamlessly into a rhythmic part i’d created on NI’s Maschine.

Melbourne songwriter Ross McLennan made an audio-visual video response to the track for the Exhibition. It was presented as a looping video, but the youtube clip is not looping… so you’ll have to imagine the clip looping. He has used part of the song’s outro and matched it with video of his son playing with a sparkler. It is quite mesmerizing.

Ross says of the process: “I initially wanted to make something that highlighted the place where Matt and I connect; where sounds feel like brain chemistry rather than music created by players. So, I took the more abstract section of the track, and then abstracted it further.
After a conversation with Matt about what the track meant to him, I went looking through my home movies. i found some footage of my son from a few years back. Something about the sparkler seems to marry well to the “brain chemistry feel” of the sound. Like a humble little life. The lifespan of a miniature star.”

Please visit Ross’ facebook page and listen to his amazing music.

Listen to the album version of Friday nights forever:

and also check out the 333 remix:

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Track 6 off Sunday Morning is a swirling indie-rock shoe-gazer called Teenage kicks.
Jessica Rizzi, superstar DJ, photographer and all round nice girl, took a step sideways from her usual arts practice of photography to create a stop motion video work for the exhibition.
Jess says of the process: “The title of this track coupled with it’s upbeat feel created within me a nostalgic sense of days gone by, days filled with spontaneous encounters and reckless moments. There was always movement in this vision, so I decided to step away from my usual medium of still photography and explore the idea of stop motion animation. This avenue allowed me to create the movement I envisioned as well as incorporating an element of photography by photo collages as my backdrop.”

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Track 5 off Sunday Morning is a short little ambient soundscape called Hiccups, which features guitar loops, bells and Susannah’s vocals.

Kate Stokes created an amazing response to the work called “Filament”. Her installation/light work is made from Bricklayers nylon and wire.

Kate says: “This track has a nostalgia that conjured up images of a lonely fisherman at sea. These structures have a delicate woven framework, reminiscent of fishing nets and cray pots.”

See more of Kate’s work at her CocoFlip website here

listen to Hiccups on soundcloud