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.

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. 

In the meantime: Kaya "Original"

I have been pretty busy in the past weeks at Radio Fritz hosting the morning and sometimes afternoon shifts as well. And, of course, I have been busy working on the Essenz video "Vivat Entitas Okkulta". It's almost finished, we'll get to that very soon!

In the meantime, my friend Kaya asked me to do a shooting of her performing "Original" at Poser Music studios, where she recorded some new material. It's quite an emotional song, we spent some hours behind closed doors, only the two of us. Although we tried out various different angles and I edited a version with three cuts, she decided on this one shot and who can blame her?



The song is Kaya's very unique way of saying good-bye to a loved one, combining the tragic with the comic and doing so with charme and heart.