Otto Laske's Videos (The Visual Music Village) - The Visual Music Village

Coves

2012-12-08T14:54:46.177Z

Animation in 3 parts (total 8:16 min.) based on photography of Cape Ann (MA) coves, processed through Studio Artist & Cinema 4D, set to music by Otto Laske (Being and Nothingness, 2009) & dedicated to Dennis H. Miller, 9-17-2011.

Farewell to Los Angeles

2012-12-08T14:52:38.473Z

Program Notes
Farewell to Los Angeles
Music, poetry, and images by Otto Laske
Duration 12:20 min., 2012

Farewell to Los Angeles is based on my reading of a poem of the same title which I embedded in selections from three pieces of my electronic music repertory. As a composition, the music stands on its own. It is part of a large compositional oeuvre that can be found on http://www.ottolaske.com/music.html, specifically the compositions "Message to the Messiah", "In Memory", and "Trilogy" (Erwachen, Ganymed), composed between 1978 and 2001.

The video itself comprises six sections; it combines images, spoken poetry, and music. The design of the video follows the stanzas of the poem as carried by the music, assiduously referencing the structure of the music. The images worked from are themselves collages that morph into each other; all of them are taken from the internet and enriched in Studio Artist.

Esthetically, the video strives to render the poem in its fullness (video poetry). The poem achieves its ultimate form as a film accompanied by speech carried by music, -- a little "Gesammtkunstwerk" of the 21st century.

The central topic of Farewell is the human condition of living with love, loss and departure, seen as the seeding source of poetry. Poetry is conceived as a “release of words in silent innuendos” that has the power of the sea. This is conveyed in the video by the spoken text, as well as the wind-scattered words, of its central section. From a musical perspective, the video might be said to be in the tradition of German Lieder, whose source is Franz Schubert (1797-1828).

The film is dedicated to Nadine Boughton. Dennis Miller was a wonderful mentor in coping with some of the big technical difficulties encountered.

TreeLink

2012-12-08T14:46:52.779Z

TreeLink
Music, Poetry, and Images by Otto Laske
Duration 14:16 minutes
2012

TreeLink is based on my reading of my own poem of the same name, written in 1979 and integrated into electronic concert music by me in 1992. The animation adds another layer of reading not found in the original musical composition. It uses collages made by me based on images by Michael Rhoades and Sylvia Pengilly (both composers as well as visual artists), as well as collages made from photographic renditions of works by glass artist Crispian Heath.

The topic of the TreeLink is aging, metaphorically addressed by reference to a particular wooded location near a former residence of mine in Needham, Massachusetts, USA. The topic is treated both narratively and visually in five sections that present a resolution of the experience of aging.

The spoken text, in the music at times overlaid with itself, and also distorted at times, comprises six stanzas of unequal size:

TREELINK

Evening light is weighing down
on the playground oaks and maples
early this wintry day.

Here, in the snow-soft meadow,
I have stood before, happier,
not noticing the weight
in the trees, when the sun sank
to close the afternoon.

The trees have aged.

I suddenly know
they were always aching
under the heavy light.

Afternoon hides below the grass,
a raven descends, and the wind
takes years off the branches,
shifting them to my shoulders.

I return weighed down,
more certain,
more luminous.

The first 2 stanzas are distributed throughout the first two sections of the animation.
The single-line stanza 3 is at the center of section 3, emphasizing the central topic. Section 4 puts the emphasis on stanzas 4 as well as 5, while the last (6th) stanza is reserved for the concluding section.

My use of collages in this animation is intentionally “painterly”. The movement of the images is closely allied with the flow of sound energy, and it is this alignment that, for me, is a must in “visual music”.

Collages using Pengilly’s images dominate section 4, while Rhoades’ images, derived from his oil paintings, and Heath’s photographic glass work images are seen, more or less identifiably, in almost every section. Hybrid images are frequent throughout.

I want to thank the contributing artists mentioned above for giving me permission to use their work.