Friday 15 March 2019

AVANT KINEMA / UNDERTOAD - "Ghost Worlds (Animal Rites)" soundtrack album - Indie/Alternative Handpan Collaboration

GHOST WORLDS (ANIMAL RITES) 
by Avant Kinema / Undertoad 
soundtrack album for Avant Kinema's 
Expanded Cinema Performance of the 
same name (Alchemy Film and Moving 
Image Festival, Hawick, 2018)


"The epic 24 minute long Ghost Worlds (Animal Rights), a gorgeous collaboration with Newcastle musician Neil Coles, aka Undertoad... is like listening to pillows of clouds floating over a zen garden while the Cocteau Twins' Liz Frazer gently ululates in the background. The first twenty minutes is so calming it should be available on prescription for stress and anxiety, one listen and you'll be so chilled your friends will think you've swallowed the Little Book of Calm. However as you hit the twenty minute mark everything gets a little more edgy and sinister as Sarahjane's unique vocals come more to the fore finally reaching a crescendo that sounds like they've opened Pandora's box to find it full of the inhabitants of the seventh circle of hell..." - Paul Kerr, The Devil Has The Best Tuna

Ghost Worlds (Animal Rites) is a collaboration between Newcastle-born Handpan player, Undertoad (aka Neil Coles), and Scottish Borders based artist-filmmakers & indie/alternative musicians, Avant Kinema (Sarahjane Swan & Roger Simian, who also create music as The Bird And The Monkey). 
The music was composed to soundtrack Avant Kinema's 25 minute long Expanded Cinema Performance, part of Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival's Celebrate Super 8 event at the Auld Baths, Hawick (Friday 4th May 2018). The track's evolution began with Undertoad creating an improvised Handpan jam. To this recording the duo then added their own musical elements: Sarahjane Swan's voice and Roger Simian's instrumentation.

The album is available to download from The Bird And The Monkey's Bandcamp page.




 

Thursday 14 March 2019

GHOST WORLDS: ANIMAL RITES  (The 10 Minute Edit) -
 Document of an Expanded Cinema Performance by AVANT KINEMA 
at Alchemy Film And Moving Image Festival, Hawick, May 2018



This is the 10 minute edit of GHOST WORLDS (ANIMAL RITES) - the video document of a 25 minute long Expanded Cinema Live Performance by Avant Kinema (Sarahjane Swan & Roger Simian) at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Hawick, May 2018.















An experimental hybrid of both digital and analogue filmmaking, Ghost Worlds makes use of expired Kodachrome 40 filmstock, home-processed using the Caffenol recipe (coffee, washing soda, vitamin c) and handcrafted by directly scratching & painting the film. 

The Super 8 footage was filmed on location throughout Scotland (Scottish Borders, Dumfriesshire, Perthshire, Ayrshire & The Orkney Islands). 

The full 25 minute version of the film is currently in post-production and will be released at a later date. 

The soundtrack is a collaboration between Avant Kinema (who also make music as The Bird And The Monkey) and Undertoad (aka Neil Coles, a Folk Musician & Psytrance exponent from Newcastle, also one-time friend and collaborator with Ozric Tentacles). Undertoad here provides the improvised Handpan phrases which act as a rhythmic and melodic underlay for Sarahjane Swan's vocals and Roger Simian's instrumentation. 

Ghost Worlds (Animal Rites) is a Vegan Art Film, inspired by Avant Kinema's interest in animal rights, veganism and the work of such activists as Earthling Ed and Joey Carbstrong. 

**Warning: the film contains some scenes which viewers may find disturbing** 

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