Paul Fonfara and the Ipsifendus Orchestra
DeVotchaka’s Paul Fonfara and The Ipsifendus Collective today present the world premiere of the Chris Delilse and Christ Dahl video for “Tar Sands” featured off Fanfara’s Seven Secrets of Snow album (released earlier this year). Paul can be heard here backed by a Balkan 12-piece chamber orchestra & brass band that delivers a wide scale span of moods & expansive expressions where his compositions allow his songwriting to spring forth to new cinematic scales. The story behind Paul’s recent song cycle began while working with the filmmakers who made Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus invited Fonfara to score a documentary on the Russian clown Slava Polunin’s Siberian journey home during the dead of winter. Despite production delays, Paul brought his composition sketches to life, with thanks to a Minnesota Artists Initiative grant, where 7 Secrets of Snow became a grandiose reality.
Paul Fonfara presents the Chris Delilse & Christ Dahl video for “Tar Sands” that captures wild horses at various film speeds galloping in the clouds & mist. In monochrome tones, we watch the equine beasts of beauty trodding through the water and emerging from mist where the film speed is in tune to the swaying strings and Paul’s melancholy delivery. Subtle effects & edits see the the hooves hitting the pebbles of water & sand, where contrasts of elements are peppered throughout. We splashes of horses leaping into the sea, as raging fires and towering stacks of thick smoke contrast against the images of dust & dense fog. Together “Tar Sands” is experienced like an art house rendering of National Geographic-like film where the lenses & frame rates are in states of constant flux.
Paul Fonfara shared the following thoughts on the making of “Tar Sands”, along with the making of the Chris Delilse and Christ Dahl video:
This song is meant to be a serene and beautiful picture of the waste and desolation of the tar sands rather than commenting on the obvious ridiculous vulgarity of the situation. Simply marveling at the scene from a distance beyond human scale rather than judging how wrong it is. Maybe like slowing down while driving past the aftermath of a car crash. I was highly influenced by the by the film Manufactured Landscapes following Edwards Burtynsky as he photographs massive industrial projects. Especially the opening scene, which is a 5 minute uninterrupted slow pan through a Chinese factory as workers in silent diligence go about their day. I wanted to write a song that shares that pacing with an unending dirge and deliberate droning pulse.
When I met with film makers Chris Delilse and Christ Dahl, we wanted footage that was not of the Tar Sands directly, but more metaphorical. They had found a batch of aging 16 mm footage at an auction showing wild horses being corralled and culled by firelines created with burning oil on a lake. The images more correspond to the pacing and sentiment of the songs rather than the lyrics directly. Nature captured.
Paul Fonfara and the Ipsifendus Orchestra’s grand album Seven Secrets of Snow is available now.
Ablebody
Ablebody playing Bowery Ballroom; photographed by Jonathon Bernstein.
Longtime readers/listeners/viewers of Impose & our Week in Pop column are already aware of Ablebody and we have just received word this week that their anticipated album debut Adult Contemporaries will be available October 14 from Lolipop Records. In celebration of this news we give you the Megan Cullen & Cedie Janson directed video for “Backseat Heart” that features Ablebody’s own Christoph Hochheim, Anton Hochheim, joined by Daniel Rosenbaum, Jordan Sabolick, Sarah Manuwal, Jess Krichelle, Olive Kimoto that travels everywhere from the desolate areas of southern California to the city scenes of Los Angeles. Following the Hochheim brothers around town and to the rural patches of tall reeds & weeds where the brothers are met by their own enchanted kind and DIY pop contemporaries. “Backseat Heart” is made from the soft & gentle pop your parents always talked about (that you never ‘got’ at the time, until now) that showcases the latest realizations of the Ablebody blissful sound where their retreat from the concrete streets finds them in the good graces of their own fellow kindred hearts, talents, & minds. Christoph shared the following exclusive thoughts with us on their latest batch of material:
I suppose it’s a song about the moment when the threads of a relationship start to wear thin and self-denial/comforts of routine make way for a false sense of security. It’s about stifling inaction and yearning for a past or a future that may have never existed. The video takes a less literal slant and is more about a return to nature. It’s about finding that reset button, unable to fake it anymore…the story of two men returning to their natural state yet finding it challenging to get back there.
The record is a collection of songs I spent years composing but just a month or so recording. We did the whole thing in Kenny Gilmore’s parent’s garage, working everyday for a month straight until it was finished. Our friend Sean Nicholas Savage offered some vocals on a track, hopefully we’ll release that song as the next single.
