As film makes a resurgence as a medium, music, too, responds with optical, chemical halos. Bibio’s music, sounding acoustically as if wrapped in a layer of warm gauze, was already partially cinematic. His new album for Warp, “Mind Bokeh,” is more tuneful and poppy, but as the name implies, it also draws directly from visual inspiration. It’s so visual, in fact – and the optical creations so central – that I think it belongs more here than even on our sister site.
For the new record, the multi-instrumentalist and producer, aka Stephen James Wilkinson, takes a photographic technique and spins an album out of it. Even hipster-friendly film photo outfit Lomography gets in on the action:
Bibio x Lomography: The Bokeh Project
And the artist writes up a tip on how to get the effect on film (that’s film, kids – yes, I wish the Lomographic Institute would stop describing the chemical process of film as “analog”):
Learn bokeh with Bibio
It’s all worth mentioning here as I find the visual production really quite evocative. The music video (below) is good, colorful fun, packed to the brim with optical effects of the sort popular in audiovisual theatrical productions from decades past. For some reason, Warp hasn’t seen fit to share the production credits; I’ll try to get them.
But oddly, I think I’m more impressed with the spare, bokeh-driven effects of the sampler video. (top) It’s the work of Bibio himself (as may be the other video, actually, given the lack of credit). Wilkinson, like the American Tycho, is visual artist as well as musical.
See also Mr. Wilkinson’s video for “Mr. & Mrs. Compost,” assembled from found film.
More information on the record, plus free track download:
http://warp.net/records/bibio
Other film-influenced music and motion? Let us know.