Tanya Tagaq - Animism

Many moons ago I was introduced to the person and the music of Tanya Tagaq, an artist who created her own solo form of Inuit throat singing which is traditionally performed by two women.  It was a fall evening and Tanya stepped onto the stage, barefoot and very pregnant surrounded by two musicians, violinist Jesse Zubot and percussionist Jean Martin.  Tanya spoke softly welcoming the audience to the continuous set, as if to prepare us for what was to come.

I had been told that a show of Tanya Tagaq was "intense" and I am admittedly pretty sensitive, but from that spoken introduction came a spectrum of sounds that hit me straight in the chest and rearranged my insides.  Almost as soon as the music and vocals reached me, involuntary bio/physiological reactions were taking place, I was instantly tearing up and trying to visualize rainbows and puppies to calm down.
Whew.... that...was...raw.
Did I mention intense?

photo: Jenn McInnis

Tagaq's Animism recently won the 2014 Polaris Music Prize and the tour will touch down in Montreal a sold-out show in Montreal at the Centre Phi tomorrow night.  I had a chance to exchange some words with violinist Jesse Zubot about Polaris aftermath and what we can expect at tomorrow's show.

Have you felt a change in the response to the band since winning the Polaris Prize?

Yes, a change in response to the shows with Tanya has definitely happened since the Polaris Prize scenario...all of a sudden Tanya can barely open her mouth without all the press in Canada freaking out.  Also, every show we've done in Canada since has been sold out and we are even having a hard time getting our close friends into some of the shows!!  It seems like people are now listening to the music on a higher, more concentrated level to everything that goes down, so we have to be in top form!

You mentioned in an earlier correspondence that you were going to do a hardcore show.  Were you being serious?! What can Montreal expect at the Centre Phi show?

Hardcore show!!  Well, that just means a 'no holds barred' full-on smash-in-the-face vibes...There will be some moments of serenity and calmness, but in general the show will probably be very emotional, aggressive and hopefully transcending in some way.  We usually play about 70 minutes with no stopping to create trance-like vibes.

Thanks to Jesse Zubot for the warning.  I'll be the one in the corner crying with kleenex.

thin black lines

Everyday symbols

1. women's washroom sign at the Phi Centre

2. on the wall at Cafe Falco: bicycle cart, unknown (to me) triangle, and a siphon coffee maker

anyone want to let me know what the middle symbol is?

a tent with an ottoman?

a tunnel in a mountain?

a tea light holder?

other ideas?

**UPDATE 27.01.13: a clever reader just clued me in that the mystery symbol is an onigiri.  Thank you.**

Marie-Soleil Michon

The october issue of Elle Québec's culture section features the very charming television personality Marie-Soleil Michon, shot by Daniel Cianfarra at the Centre Phi.  I had the pleasure of pulling some looks for Michon who was a pro: focused and so easy to work with. The look we finally settled on was a fits-like-a-glove cotton dress with an elbow length sleeve and that awesome paint drip pattern by Jonathan Saunders.  Over the dress, we threw on an oversize coat from Topshop and finished it off with Prada suede booties. Click, click, click and we were done.

The 8-Day Week of Renata Morales

One of my most favourite places on earth, the Centre Phi (and the DHC of course) announced that they will be having a series of guest-curated events by some of Montreal's creatives.  The list included filmmaker Xavier Dolan, designer Rad Hourani and Vice co-founder Suroosh Alvi.  First up to bat was designer and all around visually inclined phenomena, Renata Morales who flexed her creative muscles showcasing a pop-up shop, projections, seven nights of partying and a treasure hunt for limited edition posters. 

 getting up close to Renata's work

the pop-up shop featured designers like Arielle de Pinto, Denis Gagnon, and Complex Geometries
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Inside Morales' head: a tinky-winky greets visitors
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Alex Hercule's bear and Joe Becker paintings

foxtrott takes the stage during the closing night

karneef and a ghostly morales clad projection

Valtari Mystery Film Experiment

Ok, let's get meta for the end of the year.
That was my tweet on the 9th of December for the Sigur Rós Valtari mystery film experiment screening.  During that weekend of December 7-9, more than a hundred screenings of the project were taking place on all seven continents.  The screening for Montreal was at the more than awesome Phi Centre, where guests viewed 16 shorts inspired by the tracks on the band's latest album Valtari.

And the result? Let's discuss!
The premise was to give the filmmakers creative freedom.  Neither the band nor the filmmakers knew the content of anyone else projects. Knowing this, it is interesting to observe overall themes and imagery that came out of the shorts.

The album Valtari consists of 8 tracks, some of which were used as the sole guide to the video or two or three songs were compiled to create a longer piece.  The most dominant track was "varúð", which was featured in five of the videos.  Overall feel/conjured imagery: atmospheric is a given, moody, end of the world as we know it/economic collapse aesthetic.
Examples:

film #15: varúð by björn flóki

 film #16: leaning towards solace by floria sigismondi

 film #14: valtari by christian larson

Another dominant theme was nature (surprise!)  The sweeping sounds of Sigur Rós dares you not to conjure images of (Icelandic?) landscapes full of dollies and pans of forests and celestial montages.
Examples:

film #8: dauðalogn by henry jun wah lee

film #11: dauðalogn by ruslan fedotow

film #10: ekki múkk by nick abrahams

The films varied in themes, styles and production values.  The music lends itself easily to dance/performance and is represented by 5-6 shorts in the series (depending on your personal interpretation.)

Two dance/performance pieces from top: film #7: varðeldur by melika bass and film #13: varðeldur by clare langan

But things start getting tricky when a narrative is applied; such as leaning towards solace by Floria Sigismondi.  Being a fan of her work since the nineties, I was surprised at the heavy handed voice-over and certain clichéd imagery.  The video featured Elle Fanning and John Hawkes; two actors whose faces and expressions I could stare at for hours, but with the already emotional Sigur Rós track, the extra maudlin touches lacked subtlety that could have taken the clip to the next level.

Floria was not alone in the heavy narrative catagory, but somehow film #9: seraph by Dash Shaw and John Cameron Mitchell fared a bit better.  Maybe because it was an animation.  You be the judge.

But enough with being critical- let's talk about coincidences!  As mentioned earlier, there was no conferring between the directors or the band.

The carving/drawing with glass and making eyes.

Seen in film #3 fjögur píanó by alma har'el and film #9, mentioned above.

Removing peeling paint from walls
seen from top: film #15: varúð by björn flóki and film #14: valtari by christian larson

 

People crying (even in the same aspect ratio!)
from top: film #4: rembihnútur by arni & kinski and film #3: fjögur píanó by alma har'el and yes that is Shia Leboeuf getting all performance art on us.

There is also blonde haired girls with gemstones glued to the corner of thier eyes, plenty of animals, New York City, and snowfall/rainfall. But please feel free to treasure hunt for those yourselves!

I'll take this moment to mention one of my personal faves, a short that features a body covered in what looks like gooey marshmallow, shot in negative?

 film #12: fjögur píanó by anafelle liu, dio lau and ken ngan

That's it for me! Wishing you lots of food, art, film and fashion awesomeness in the new year!
Amusez-vous!