"Rotations" by Above & Beyond

The electronic music act/DJ trio Above & Beyond (English DJs Jono Grant and Tony McGuinness, and Finnish DJ Paavo Siljamäki) explored some Ambient sounds recently and this lovely track, "Rotations" while way too short, offers a calm soundscape but tinged with a sense of cinematic mystery and enigmatic expansion, a sense of something awe-inspiring and infinite just waiting around the corner...

https://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/

Happy Birthday, Iva Davies of Icehouse!

A very happy birthday to Mr. Iva Davies, founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and immensely talented songwriter of the Australian band Icehouse.

I am feeling great love and nostalgia for this 1980 song from their debut album. Not only is Icehouse the name of the group, having changed it from their original name Flowers, but the song itself is also titled "Icehouse." Although Icehouse was never truly seen as a New Romantic band (yet they were tagged with the catch-all New Wave title by some), I sure felt they belonged with other fantastic New Romantic groups like Ultravox. The "Icehouse" song and their debut album (as well as their sophomore album "Primitive Man") was an atmospheric, synth-heavy affair with a marvelous use of texture. The accompanying video resembles New Romantic classics like Ultravox's "The Thin Wall" and "The Voice," and even Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Draw Of The Cards," all directed by Australian film director Russell Mulcahy. Follow this haunting, touching narrative that beautifully supports the chilling, profound lyrics and aching, moving melody.

It's always cold inside the icehouse
Though the rivers never freeze
There's a girl outside the icehouse
I can see her clearly though the trees

Now she's dreaming of a new love
And she hopes he'll be there soon
She's got so long to wait for him
Because he needs another year to get there

She'll wait another lifetime out there

There's no love inside the icehouse

The devil lives inside the icehouse
At least that's what the old ones say
They say He came along time ago
He came here in the winter snow
Now it's colder every day

But she's still dreaming through the summer
And she's hoping through the spring
She says she's got no time for winter nights
She doesn't notice as the days grow darker
She can't remember getting any older

There's no love inside the icehouse

 
Now she's dreaming of a new love
And she hopes he'll be there soon
She says she's got no time for winter nights
She doesn't notice as the days grow darker
She can't remember getting any older

There's no love inside the icehouse
There's no love inside the icehouse
The icehouse

Happy Birthday, Iva! Thanks for sharing decades of your music with us.

https://icehouse-ivadavies.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Jiří Hauschka

The enigmatic, colorful work of Jiří Hauschka made me gasp when I first saw it. Mysterious landscapes present concepts and narratives I want to step into, to see it all closer. These places seem to be full of magic and things beyond the physical world.

Top to bottom: A Lot of Things in the Garden; Bath; Bird Lake; Bird Song; Birds; Elastic World; I Am In Love With Your Brother; I Should Go There; Thickets; This Must Be The Place; untitled; White River

http://jirihauschka.com/

BEAUTY: Illustration--Jenna Barton

Animals and mysteries. That is what artist Jenna Barton says she draws.

Top to bottom: Interstate 15; It came through the yard again; Mountain spirits see and love you; Shrine; There was something in the pool last night; Familiar

Her blog:
http://dappermouth.tumblr.com/
Prints and clothing:
http://dappermouth.storenvy.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Josie Morway

Sic transit gloria mundi ("Worldly things are fleeting") announces the enigmatic work of Josie Morway. Part photo realism and part homage to Old World Masters, her narratives feature animals in all their innate nobility with Latin phrases such as "Fortune joined with bravery in undisguised, uncorrupted faith," "He who guards, doesn't sleep," "I follow higher things," and "No herb grows in the gardens against the power of death." This combination makes me think of familiars, totems, spirit animals, and magic.

http://www.josiemorway.com/

BEAUTY: Illustration--Yosuke Yamaguchi

Japanese illustrator Yosuke Yamaguchi's imagination runs in a direction that is sympatico with my own: a bit magic realist, a bit surrealist...a bit like dream logic...and a bit like a shaman might see while deep in a trance. Enormous spirit animals protect humans in forests, magical rites are underway, and lycanthropy is alive. Human/animal, animal/human...it's a fine line. We're all animals after all.

Top to bottom: hidden history; nemure 1; nemure 2; nemure 8; nightwork; shiranaikoto; slowending; someday; viridarium cymicum; we know you; wolf in her breast; yakoku 11-12

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cribas/

What If...

BEAUTY: Painting--Ruprecht Von Kaufman

Regular readers know that I truly love painters who work with very oblique, enigmatic narratives. And painter Ruprecht Von Kaufman really knows how to present a scene that requires interpretation, showing us frozen scenes of arcane rites, covert actions, or ambiguous situations we are not meant to see. His imagery is clouded in mystery and verge on the surreal... more qualities I love in a piece of art.

http://www.rvonkaufmann.com/