"PLAGE TATTOO/CIRCUMSTANCES"
MUSIC BY ZITA SWOON (2000, WEA, 8573 82117 2)
Songs (click on the -icons
for a small audio-sample)
1. Up to the moon (daytime)
2. Circumstances
3. Stay with us
4. Spider grinder
5. Into his arms
6. Hungry
7. For blood effects in his mouth
8. Learn to dance with her
9. Drop
10. People can't stand the truth
11. I am a lover
12. The washing
13. Little Marie
14. No midi
15. Up to the moon
lyrics & music : Bjorn Eriksson, Stef Kamil Carlens, Aarich
Jespers
Produced by Stef Kamil Carlens & Aarich Jespers
Recorded at home
Musicians :
- Bjorn Eriksson
- Stef Kamil Carlens
- Aarich Jespers
with :
- Tom Pintens
- Roel van Camp
- Tamayo Ocano
- Marie Roofthooft
- Georgio Chitschenko
- Stephan Duncan
- Eva Van Riet
- Rudy Trouvé
Modern dance, that's a probably unforgivably huge "gap in my culture".
The last dance-play that I saw, must be dated in 1989 or so. Even the fact that
a large part of the beloved Zita Swoon set up such a play called "Plage Tattoo
/ Circumstance" with Les Compagnie C de la B, and this spectacle passed (by
my door) in Genk, hasn't managed to change that fact.
A musical testimony of the play (something that's closer to my interests) has
now found its' way onto a cd, originally intended to be sold only at the plays
itself. We can only guess what reason (missed deadline? record firm pressure?
Belief in the quality of the work?) came up to distribute it in the normal circuit.
It's unlikely that "Plage Tattoo/Circumstances" will become a bestseller,
because for that the offering is to fragmentary, too hermetic, too queer. On a
musical level, the cd can best be described as "The Sound Hobbyist"
(the extra cd that came with ZS's last CD in the first pressing) meets "The
Sylvie & Babs High Thigh Companion With Tittillating Orchestrations by the
Murray Fontana Orchestra" (Nurse with Wound, LAYLAH Records 15). Cut-ups,
Steven Hawking voices, a lesson English-Italian, a techno-sequence, a conversation
during the parking of a car, fast-forward tv-channels, a Japanese woman in child
labour, industrial percussion ... and in between all that a pedal-steel guitar,
a little waltz, a jingle, a riff. That from this weird collage beautiful things
can come, is witnessed by the track "Into His Arms", the most
beautiful moment of the cd. Also pretty good : the percussion-driven "I am
A Lover", the end of "Circumstances", bits & pieces of "The
Washing" and "Hunger", the frail "Little Marie".
It takes some time getting used to, wins in power with time, but I never got to
the point where I could understand it or get rid of the question "why?".
All this makes it for me without a doubt of all the Zita Swoon CD's the one that
has least touched me. Aside from that, it's of course a must for all Stef-fanatics,
a memento for those that saw the play, and a nice "peculiar" sop until
the next full-line-up Zita Swoon CD.
This Album in the Press
- la in Humo "Plage Tattoo
is not the true successor to the excellent "I Paint Pictures on a Wedding
Dress", but contains good stuff nonetheless".
- dp in Uptomusic
"The fifteen tracks are full of abstract minimalism and are barking up
a lot of musical trees. At one moment you hear rhythmic percussion and a waltz,
another moment you hear eery guitars and shouty vocals. ... People with a bit
of patience and an open mind for kind of cacaphony, will discover quite a few
nice sound fragments".
Did you see a good (or bad) review of this album ? Tell
me about it !
Where to buy this CD ?
You can order this CD from a number of locations (prices researched on March
10, 2000, but nothing guarantees they still are the same when you read this).
The lowest price is in yellow, the highest in red. This price comparison doesn't
take things into account like deduction of shipping expenses when ordering more
than 1 cd, bonus points, differences in guarantees ... Shipping prices are those
for customers in Belgium.
Have you seen this record elsewhere on the net, do you own an online-CD-shop
with Belgian products in it, or if there's something wrong with my calculations
: let me know.
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