Kaya "All This Time"

Wow. It only took 13 years.

Kaya and I have finally made a track together. Not just a video, a song. A simple drama, borderline generic - just as I love it - and graced by my friend's beautiful voice. We had Kaya's frequent collaborator Jens Wojnar record the vocals and co-produce the track and though it is still but a demo, I felt this has to be shared now. Time moves too fast.



In classic fashion, the clip is compiled out of footage found in the Prelinger Archives. If you wonder, what makes this classic, look down. One other track.



Will there ever be more? Possibly. Don't hold your breath, though. It might be another 13 years.

The latest batch of videos...

Just a quick look at some of the most recent things I have done...

As mentioned before, I have done a considerable amount of stage visuals for the Crime tour last year. During the course of that tour we didn't want to put out too much of it on the internet, but since now they are touring with a different program I have to admit: I'm too proud of them to let them go unmentioned.

And why not start with what I consider to be my favourite work yet.



The visual to the song "The Call" was inspired by a 2012 commercial for a french department store featuring Catherine Deneuve. It used different shades of grey as colours are usually used to create a psychedelic effect. I took this idea and played around with it a bit, creating a fantasy language and epileptic flickering along with graphic rhythms common to 1990s music videos.



Quite unexpected by me, the visual for "Frame by Frame" proved to be one of the most popular ones out of the 35 minute program. Snake skeletons and found footage of open heart surgery seem to make for an attractive combination.

Aside from the visuals, which allowed a quite experimental approach to clip making I also worked in more conventional ways as I directed two more music videos during the last months.



Jim Hickey's debut video "Everything" was shot over three days in a room full of strings and edited over many weeks. Anne Haight's debut clip "Seaside" also took three days to shoot and was edited (and I know how posh this might sound) in Tuscany as I didn't want to edit it in grey Berlin. Flights and accomodation were cheap and the view beat the one out of my busy room.

Half-Year Round Up 2013

I've been too busy to notice how time flew by...

In November I shot a clip for a new song of my friend Kaya. It actually depicts the way from my Berlin home to the area around Rheinsberg, where I grew up in the countryside outside of Berlin, so it features a lot of places I have known since I can remember.



In February I edited two research-heavy image film loops for Radio Fritz (rbb). One to be used around the 20th anniversary of the station and one to be used as sideshow entertainment at Fritz presentations.



Researching the material involved a couple of night sessions alone in the TV archive of rbb in Potsdam and going through the VJ archives at Fritz itself. The quality of resolution of the footage varied quite a lot, but I think the Fritz spirit comes across.



In April Stefan Fähler directed a promo clip at Con Men for Berlin event series Gegen as part of their "Gegen Innocence" party. I only provided location, set up and VHS transfer but his work turned out so nice, also thanks to the flowers provided by Mark Colle and the performance of Claudia Kent from the Crime Video "This Party Blows", that I feel it cannot get enough exposure.



Speaking of Crime. The show featuring the visuals mentioned below has travelled on a tour around Europe and have even made it to NYC. Here's a little one shot take of them performing "Other Kids Lives" at Berlin's Südblock that I shot some months ago, that you might like if you like them. Which you should, because they are great.



Last, but certainly not least I have been doing something for the first time. Doing presentations at a conference, the radiofestival "Vmeste - Radio" in Moscow talking about my work as a morning host and reporter at Radio Fritz.

© Pawel Kartaev

I really have to thank Natalia Vlasova and Ekaterina Solomina from the foundation for independent radio broadcasting (FNR) for the invitation to this event at the end of May. Those were really some great days in the russian capital with a lot of new friends and many interesting points of view on the profession we share. 

Crime "This Party Blows"

Crime is heading your way!

Sissters' Mika Risiko and Scream Club's Sarah Adorable have teamed up for a new project that involves keyboards and floor toms and from here on you should discover for yourself what it is they are making.

Crime is gearing up for a European trek with Dischord recording act E.D. Sedgwick in November/December and this is a taste of what you are about to see onstage:



No, the girls will not be attending the show bored and undressed, but each song is set to feature an individual video to be projected on Mika and Sarah accompanying the music. Aside from me, clips were directed by Stefan Fähler and Mika; they feature actress Pau Pappel, film maker Ester Martin Bergsmark, dancer Prince William Morris and many more.

"This Party Blows" received its premiere in the shorts section of the Berlin Porn Film Festival in October and will kick off the release of some more music videos based on the visuals of the show.

If you have time, we strongly advise you to go see the concert. And if you do, please write back and say, how you liked it. Tour kicks off on November 23 at Berlin's Marie Antoinette, check out Stefan Fähler's poster!

11-23 Berlin (GER)- Marie Antoinette
11-24 Hamburg (GER)- Centro Sociale
11-25 Marburg (GER) - Trauma
11-26 Potsdam (GER) - Black Fleck
11-27 Aachen (GER) - AZ
11-28 Trier (GER) - Exhaus
11-29 Würzburg (GER) - Cairo
11-30 Nürnberg (GER)- K4
12-01 Leipzig (GER)
12-02 Prague (CZ) - Klub 007
12-05 Wroclaw (PL) - Lykend Club
12-06 Olomouc (CZ) - Mitril
12-07 Brno (CZ) - Yacht
12-08 Jihlava (CZ) - Club Jezek
12-09 München (GER) - Kafe Kult
12-10 Heilbronn (GER) - Mobilat Club
12-11 Giessen (GER) - AK 44

In 30 years we're gonna look back at this and...

...not see our ridiculous haircuts, the by then painfully outdated clothes, gestures that don't relate to comtemporary life anymore, won't have to explain why we briefly dated that person and above all: we won't wonder what blur of a band that is on stage.

We'll have this:

We can get this out of the shelf and wholeheartedly say: I might 
not be in the picture, but this is where I was, that is what I
loved and "here, have a look! this is what it felt like!" All the 
bands and places and situations that we saw with our own eyes or 
for some stupid reason missed out on. We'll reach in the inside of 
the cover and put on the music compilation that came with it.




And then we can skip to the credits of the book and prove we 
knew back then that we would want to have this in 30 years. 

This is an emotional pension plan, so skip a payment and pump 
some money in this beauty to make it happen! First step: klick on
the picture below!*



*text applies only to you if you have enjoyed alternative rock 
music nightlife in Berlin between 2006 and 2011 thanks to 
Deerhunter, Sonic Youth, Lower Dens, Tortoise, Future Islands,
Stephen Malkmus, Les Savy Fav, R.E.M., Mudhoney, Times 
New Viking, Sea And Cake, Kurt Vile, Dinosaur Jr., Bear in 
Heaven, Lambchop, Dirty Projectors, Calexico, Fleet Foxes, 
Caribou, Mogwai, Deerhoof, Chris Corsano and more or if you 
wish to give that impression, even if only in 30 years. 

48 Stunden Neukölln

I'm sitting here trying to think of something to explain what you're about to see, should you choose to follow.

Well... there are 3 clips shot in Berlin. ...by brazilian filmmaker Ivi Roberg and me. There's poems. And pictures. And music by Mika Risiko, v.b.d. and Terminal Guitar Trio. Come to think of it, they all are solo projects or side arms of other bands: Sissters, Essenz and Château Laut. Enough name dropping. They have been on exhibition at annual Berlin art festival "48 Stunden Neukölln" at Café Engels or as you could say: in a dark corner of a former bowling alley.

Enjoy or something.