Filed under: Music | Tags: austra, electro-magnetism, emika, harmonia, jan hammer group, minimal synth, mix, podcast, severed heads, subway, synthpop, tara cross, taulard, the 6ths, thick pidgeon, units, xeno and oaklander
Well, here’s the yearly blog post. The yearly mix. This one doesn’t have any real specific theme, other than these are the artists I’ve been rocking out to over the past year. It’s been an intense year here in Stockholm, as I continue my rocky integration into Swedish culture, and a lot of these songs have been my soundtrack to that experience. Some of the bands are recent discoveries, and some are old favorites.
I recently went on a trip to Grenoble, and came back with a fantastic punk compilation called Sous Sol (thanks Raf!), a gorgeous handmade silkscreened CD made in the dreamy printing room at the 102 squat. I swear that everything they make in there looks like magic!
From this compilation I chose the song Fuir by Taulard, a snappy energetic blast of awesomeness. Xeno & Oaklander‘s latest album from 2011, Sets and Lights, had been on repeat for many a month. The song Blue is actually my second favorite track off that album, the first being Autumn’s Edge. Oh the glistening effervescing arpeggios! I am loving how polished their sound is becoming.
Always plundering the fast expanses of Stephin Merritt’s work, I came upon The 6ths’ last album Hyacinths and Thistles. I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would, but the song Oahu made it all worth while.
“It wasn’t meant to be, she had no time for me cause she was writing a novel…”
Tracklisting
- Units – Cowboy
- Taulard – Fuir
- Severed Heads – Dead Eyes Opened (Remix Three)
- Xeno & Oaklander – Blue
- Subway – Lowlife
- Austra – Spellwork
- Emika – Count backwards
- Tara Cross/Unovidual – Touch Me Here, Touch Me There
- Thick Pidgeon – Subway
- Jan Hammer Group – Dont you know
- Harmonia – Kekse
- The 6ths – Oahu
Enjoy the mix!
Ps. Oh, and I’m now on Mixcloud! Come find me there.
Pps. I moved my old files so my old mixes no longer load anymore. Bummer. They were super old though. If you’d like a listen/download, don’t hesitate to post a comment in that mix’s post and I’ll re-up it!
Filed under: Art
I decided to create a special blog specifically for my flameworked glass.
You can check it out here!
or here:
http://larkisadora.wordpress.com
Filed under: Music | Tags: electro-magnetism, italo disco, minimal synth, scandinavian synth
(You can download it as well by clicking the little down-arrow on the Soundcloud thingy above.)
It’s time for another mix! I lean towards cheerful music in winter for some reason (see Episode 2). Maybe just to keep my downtrodden sun-craving soul alive and kicking through the darkness.
You can download it above, or subscribe to the podcast using the following URL in iTunes:
http://www.larkisadora.com/electro-magnetism.rss
Tracklist:
- Blondes- Synthesist
- Pete Shelley- Witness the Change
- Eleven Pond- Portugal
- Primadonna- Flashing on the Floor
- Schmaalhans Weltraum- Samovar
- Det Gylne Triangel- Maskindans
- Grimes- Oblivion
- Com Truise- Sundripped
- Heartsrevolution- Teenage Teardrops (Pyramid Remix)
- Plastic Mode- NY Life
- Alden Tyrell- Hills of Honolulu
- Clockwork Orange- Sensation Boys
- Moß Garten- Moderna Kvinnor
- The Arms of Someone New- Beacon
- Big Ben Tribe- Heroes
I recently moved to Sweden and have been exploring some Scandinavian minimal synth lately, so I included some of that in there as well. Originally I wanted to do an all-Scandinavian mix, but I didn’t quite have enough super duper awesome material. Hopefully by next year I’ll be ready!
One of my new favorite compilations is Maskindans: Norsk Synth from Hommage Records in Oslo, which you can buy here. I highly recommend it! From their description:
Tracks from Tromsø up North to Arendal in the South, tracks recorded as early as 1980 and up to 1988, tracks shorter than two minutes and longer than six, spanning dark wave, avant garde, synth pop and most genres in between; songs that were hits on Norwegian radio and songs that have been totally obscure for 20 years or more. Maskindans is an impressively broad and thorough presentation of the finest Norwegian ’80s electronics.
The whole thing is really quite good, and some of the tracks are really addictive. On my mix, the tracks by Clockwork Orange and Det Gylne Triangel were my favorites from this compilation. I found it quite adorable to read that more than half of the first pressings were snapped up by the Norwegian government for use in libraries, all the way from Oslo to the Russian border.
I’ve also been trying to find as much Swedish language music as I can that I actually like. I included these favorites by Schmaalhans Weltraum and Moß Garten, both Swedish bands from the 1980s.
Some of my favorite modern bands of the moment are also featured on here, including Com Truise (who has a really nice looking website, btw) who I see just recently played Stockholm unknown to me (will. now. kill. self.) and Grimes. I have also been getting into Emika, but her music is in no way perky enough to fit on this mix. Perhaps after my perky wears off and I start wearing sunglasses and black velvet in the darkest depths of winter, I’ll make another mix more suitable to her. (Sounds fun!) But for now, here’s a very nice remix of a song from her recent self-titled debut.
Filed under: Art | Tags: 2011, boro, borosilicate, Brooklyn, displays, glass, jewelry, lampworking, lark isadora, larkisadora, pyrex, renegade craft fair
My friend Vanessa Fatton and I shared a booth at the Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair. Standing with us is the lovely and talented glass artist Jenine Bressner, visiting from Providence, Rhode Island.
I was really impressed by the fashion of many of the fair-goers. I saw so many innovative jewelry pieces being worn- I got all sorts of new ideas.
My setup was small, so I tried to maximize space by making some vertical displays. One of them was an Xray I found on the ground in Chinatown, which I framed and then displayed necklaces over. It was a hit with the doctor in the crowd, who let me know that it was displayed backwards. The heart should be on the viewers’ right side. Good to know!
It was interesting to see what people were attracted to on the table. The steel wool definitely captivated people and drew them in to handle the pieces.
Filed under: Art | Tags: borosilicate, Brooklyn, clear, etsy, glass, lampworking, larkisadora, necklace, renegade craft fair
Sunday morning jewelry times! Made this one bright and early. I think I am going to do more of these. I really like the clear ones with the different heights.
Filed under: Art | Tags: borosillicate, Brooklyn, glass, jewelry, lark davis, larkisadora, necklaces, renegade craft fair, silver chain
Made this one today, it’s in the kiln as we speak!
I’m going to be sharing a booth at Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, next Saturday and Sunday.
Come by!
Brown translucent beads made with Northstar Nile boro. They’ve got subtle blue interference shades, really nice.
Filed under: Art | Tags: borosillicate, etsy, glass, handmade, hollow, jewelry, lampworking, larkisadora, necklace, pendants, pyrex, steel wool
I have started working on some new glass pendants these days, and I am selling them on Etsy. They are clear Pyrex pendants that are hollow and filled with steel wool. Most of them are quite small, from 5cm to 8cm in length. I have paired them together to create a cluster of multi-sized pendants as well as solo pendants.
I’ll be adding more to this blog as I make and photograph them. Here are two pieces that I have made. The first (cluster of three) has been sold but the second (solo pendant) is currently for sale on Etsy.
I made this next one last week and photographed it this weekend. I’m trying out just a single pendant.
You can find my latest pieces at Larkisadora on Etsy. I’m open to collaborations and commissions! If you’re interested, please contact me through Etsy.
Filed under: Art | Tags: 35mm film, derek hunter, mira hunter, photography, vancouver, video, whirling dervish
I saw this woman, Mira Hunter, and her partner Derek Hunter presented this project last night at Dorkbot NYC. They set up 65 disposable cameras on a circular track and triggered them to simultaneously take one photo at a time. Then, after developing all the film, they centered each photo in Photoshop and pieced them together to create this video. Each position of her is one shot taken on 65 cameras, creating an amazing 3D perspective. It’s just genius and it’s very beautiful. It’s gets even better towards the end of the video, where there are falling petals and night time skies.
Light leaked through the cheap plastic of the disposable cameras onto the 35mm film to create lovely mistakes in the form of light flashes and streaks across the pictures.
Mira is a second generation whirling dervish. Typically dervishes are only men, but her father wasn’t too strict on gender norms and taught her all the same.
On Derek’s website, he suggests to listen to the video with headphones since he used binaural microphones for recording, which he says “are meant to mimic sound as the human ear encounters it.” I’m not sure if that translates through YouTube, but you can watch higher quality videos of this on both of their websites linked above.
I have decided to revive this blog. Obviously a lot has happened since my last post. I stopped making mixes after my external sound card was stolen off of a train going from Copenhagen to Stockholm, along with lots of other gear. I saw that as a sign from above, or something. To move on, to explore other avenues of expression.
I’ve been making a lot of cool crafty stuff this past winter and spring and I’ve been feeling the need for an outlet to show it off to the world. I go through that sometimes. Hibernating, making, exploring, then expelling whatever I made out into the universe.
Among other things, including miniature glass vessels and silversmithing (blog posts on these will soon follow!), I’ve been getting into knitting stranded colorwork mittens. This is my first pair. I haven’t really knitted before. I made a hat once with some coarse homespun wool. Before that I crocheted without patterns and made simple hats. I’m pretty stoked with how these turned out, and how simple they were to make really. Their complex appearance–defying their simple construction techniques–perhaps defines the magic of folk art?
I’m not sure what came over me, but I’ve gotten obsessed with these super intricate patterned mittens. It started with a ceramic lidded jar I found in the trash in my building, covered in what I later learned to be a Norwegian Selbu (rose) pattern. I loved the pattern and wanted to research what it was. Thus began a Google journey which took me to semi-traditional Selbu mittens on this blog. They looked so complicated and difficult yet miniature, perfectly controlled, vibrant and fun. Just the thing for winter couch times.
The more I looked around at other patterns (I gave in and joined ravelry.com… it’s like crack, beware), the more excited I became. I have fallen in love with the patterns of Latvia, Estonia, indigenous Russia and the Middle East. These first mittens of mine were based on a pattern created by a Finnish knitter, Tuulia Salmela, who adapted it from Egyptian stockings documented in Richard Ruttin’s History of Hand-Knitting. Supposedly aspects of this pattern date from 1200 and 1500A.D.
I loved the idea of carrying on a tradition of handmade clothing that goes back a thousand years.
I believe my next pair will be patterned from traditional Latvian figures.
bleeps & bloops 