A new alzheimer’s benefit album titled The Longest Day – A Benefit for the Alzheimer’s Association will feature contributions from the likes of New Order, Anna Calvi, Moby, Jon Hopkins, Hayden Thorpe, Sad13, Cold Specks, Algiers, Beach Slang, and more. The compilation will be released this Friday, June 19, via Mon Amie Records.
All of the profits from the album will go to the Alzeimer’s Association, while those who purchase a physical edition of the album will be able to include a loved one’s name in the liner notes.
Check out the album’s tracklist below.
01. Anna Calvi, ‘Adélaïde’ 02. Rituals of Mine, ‘The Only Way Out Is Through’ 03. Daniel Avery, ‘JXJ’ 04. Cold Specks, ‘Turn to Stone’ 05. TR/ST, ‘Destroyer’ 06. Shadowparty, ‘Marigold’ 07. Beach Slang, ‘Under the Milky Way’ 08. New Order, ‘Nothing But a Fool (Extended Mix 2)’ 09. HAAi, ‘Drumting’ 10. J. Laser, ‘Dreamphone’ 11. Sad13, ‘Who Goes There’ 12. Algiers, ‘There Is No Year (Remix)’ 13. Astronauts, Etc., ‘The Border’ 14. Wolfmanhattan Project, ‘Friday the 13th’ 15. Hayden Thorpe & Jon Hopkins, ‘Goodbye Horses’ 16. Moby, ‘In Between Violence’ 17. Rhys Chatham, ‘For Bob – In Memory (2014) for Flute Orchestra’
Ūla Šveikauskaitė, a Lithuanian illustrator who is currently based in Vienna, Austria, has released some various marvellous illustrations over the years. To celebrate the work of Šveikauskaitė, we have compiled some of our favourite pieces.
Travel photography is a fantastic way for people to see the world and make money while doing so, especially if you always manage to find the perfect shot wherever you go. As a travel photographer, you already know the best equipment to take with you, and you have trained yourself to backup every day no matter what. But it’s not just about the equipment and securing your snaps. Here are 3 essentials to consider as a travel photographer to keep you and your photos safe wherever you go.
Are You Insured?
No one should go traveling without insurance. It doesn’t matter if you are going for an extended world tour, or a quick trip to catch a festival over the weekend before getting back to the daily grind. As you are handling expensive equipment, you should ensure that everything is sufficiently covered in case of damage, loss, or theft.
While none of these situations are ideal, valuables insurance will give you the peace of mind to venture into unknown destinations. Whatever happens, you will at least be reimbursed if you encounter problems. Decent travel insurance will also cover you for canceled flights, illness, or injury. It’s worth checking out options offered by companies like Allianz Assistance to find suitable policies.
Do You Have an Escape Plan?
If you’re a travelling photographer, it’s important to have a reliable car with durable wheels. This is especially true if you’re planning on doing any kind of road trip. Plans can change quickly, and it’s always good to be prepared for the unexpected. For example, what if your flight gets cancelled and you need to get to your destination as quickly as possible? Having a reliable car will help ensure that you’re able to continue with your travels without any major delays.
Travel photographers love to go where few other tourists venture, and the result is stunning pictures that portray a side of life that many would never have heard about or seen otherwise. However, such areas can often come with danger, even if the threat is not immediately present.
Because of this, an escape plan is essential. You may have a flight booked, but this could all change, so it’s worth looking into alternative routes and methods to get out of the country should something happen, whether that’s a natural disaster to civil unrest. You should also research a personal injury attorney who you can rely on to represent you should you get hurt if things go awry to help mitigate any additional costs.
Understand the Local Customs
The fact that there are so many cultures that differ is what makes travel so exciting. Most travelers understand this, and they are happy to engage with and respect local customs. However, others do not. You mustn’t be part of this minority.
It does not take a lot to research your destination before leaving. This will give you the chance to become familiar with local customs and ensures you do not perform any cultural faux-pas while there. This will make your experience better and help you immerse yourself, but it will also keep you out of trouble, allowing you to travel as you please and get the photographs you have come for.
Snapshots of the World
Everyone should be aware of staying safe while traveling, but as a travel photographer, there are times when you may be alone in unusual places. Because of this, you must understand how to keep yourself safe, even in strange and unfamiliar situations. By doing so, you can guarantee the continued quality and innovation of every snapshot you get of the world around us.
Isabel Garrett is an award-winning Welsh animation director whose work utilizes elements of stop motion, puppetry, and live action to explore the intersection between strangeness and beauty. Her most recent animated short, Listen to Me Sing, which we caught at the Manchester International Film Festival this March, is a stunningly unique effort whose story revolves around a miserable hotel performer who falls love with a walrus. Winning Best Animation at the BAFTA-qualifying Underwire Festival, the film showcases the filmmaker’s knack for conjuring surreal worlds inhabited by characters that are conceptually subversive and wonderfully rendered on a technical level. The effect is both uncanny and subtly funny, like a strange dream you can’t quite shake.
We caught up with Isabel to talk about Listen to Me Sing, her influences, and future plans.
What drew you to the world of animation?
I love the diversity that comes with animation. You can create any world, tell any story, and have a choice in every aspect of its design. It’s a particularly visual way of telling stories; because everything is made there’s a very definite choice behind the way everything looks. It lends itself to the surreal, weird, slightly odd stories.
What about stop motion in particular interests you?
The tactility of stop motion is something I really love, it’s quite a simple thing but the fact that everything’s real and made by hand gives it an inherent feeling of life even before it’s animated. I think a lot about materials and the design of a world while I’m writing a story, for me the choice of materials, texture, design and so on is just as powerful in telling a story as anything else.
What were some of the ideas that went behind Listen to Me Sing?
Most of the things I write tend to be about relationships, in particular I’m really drawn to our relationships with our pets, with wild animals and with the natural world in general. We have a tendency to project our own experiences onto animals in order to make sense of their world, so the idea behind Sophie and the Walrus is just that- they’re similar in many ways, they’re made of the same stuff, they sound similar and they’re both misunderstood by the world they find themselves in. But the Walrus is there to represent Sophie’s primal self, the bits of her she’s forgotten.
Could you talk about the making of the short? Any challenges you faced during filming or post-production?
Making the film was a mixture of being really fun and really intense. We had about 18 months to develop the script and make the film, and it was the first time I’d worked on something so big before, with so many people, sets, puppets etc. The most exciting thing I learned was the joy of collaborating. I was used to making, lighting, editing everything myself, but there’s something so magical about working with people who are all brilliant at what they do to make something far more accomplished than I could have imagined.
How was it different from your previous efforts?
It was more ambitious in scale than anything I’d done before, and narratively a little more confident than any of my previous films.
How has the reaction been so far?
The reaction’s been lovely so far, and personally the film’s helped me confirm more clearly the sort of stories I want to tell
What are you working on currently, and what are your plans for the future?
I’ve had a few commissions over lockdown which have been really fun. I’ve also been very slowly writing a graphic novel which I’m super excited about, and in very early stages of developing a new short film!
Beyoncé has penned an open letter to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron demanding justice for the death of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old emergency room technician who was killed in an unannounced police raid on her boyfriend’s Louisville apartment. The letter is available to read on the singer’s website.
In the letter, Beyoncé calls for criminal charges against the three Louisville Metro Police officers involved in Taylor’s death, stressing the fact that it’s been three months since the incident. “Three months have passed — and the LMPD’s investigations have created more questions than answers,” she wrote. “Their incident report states that Ms. Taylor suffered no injuries —yet we know she was shot at least eight times. The LMPD officers claim they announced themselves before forcing their way into Ms. Taylor’s apartment — but her boyfriend who was with her, as well as several neighbors, all say that this is untrue.”
The singer also called for an investigation of the Louisville Metro Police Department’s response to Taylor’s death, asking for “transparency in the investigation and prosecution of these officers’ criminal conduct”, as well as the “pervasive practices that result in the repeated deaths of unarmed Black citizens.”
“Your office has both the power and the responsibility to bring justice to Breonna Taylor, and demonstrate the value of a Black woman’s life,” the singer continued. “Don’t let this case fall into the pattern of no action after a terrible tragedy. With every death of a Black person at the hands of the police, there are two real tragedies: the death itself, and the inaction and delays that follow it. This is your chance to end that pattern.”
“Take swift and decisive action in charging the officers. The next months cannot look like the last three.”
The singer also encouraged her fans to sign the #JusticeforBre and Stand With Breonna petitions. For resources in the fight against racism and police brutality, as well as a list of organizations you can donate to, click here.
A number of musicians have spoken out about the death of Rayshard Brooks, the 27-year-old black man who was fatally shot in the back by Atlanta police at a Wendy’s drive-through on Friday night.
Billie Eilish posted footage of Brooks on Instagram, writing: “man F—. watching this video made me so f—ing angry. F— THIS SHIT. JUSTICE FOR RAYSHARD BROOKS. F— THIS SHIIIIIIIIT. #justiceforrayshard !!!! WHY ISNT EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT THIS??”
Shortly after, Eilish’s brother Finneas also took to social media to express his frustration. “Justice for Rayshard. This is so f—ed up man. And such a good example of EXACTLY what’s so f—ed up about the police in America. Asleep in his car in a parking lot. Shot to death. Don’t let yourself be numb to this. Don’t let the world stay this way.”
Killer Mike also spoke out about Brooks’ death. “I am mad as hell and I am saddened beyond consolation,” the Run the Jewels rapper wrote on Instagram. “#RayshardBrooks should be alive this morning. He should be waking up (hungover or drunk in the tank depending on whether he was apprehended) and not dead.”
Brooks was asleep inside his car in a parking lot before police was called onto the scene, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. After he failed a sobriety test, an altercation ensued and Brooks ran away before being shot by one of the police officers, who has now reportedly been terminated.
“If I’m the Wendy’s worker who called the police, I feel like shit this morning because a call for a man sleeping in a car should not have ended with his killing,” Killer Mike continued. “If I’m the people with the child in the car, I feel helpless and hurt. If I’m that child, I’m scared shitless of anyone with a uniform and a gun. If I’m the angry white or black guy who was filming and saying, ‘I watched y’all for twenty minutes,’ I’m wondering what else I could have done?”
Mike also spoke about the need for a law that prevents individuals from being shot while fleeing. “If there is no weapon, fleeing from an officer should be a foot chase and radio race. If a person gets away, they get away. As I have said before, I will continue to look to and support grassroots organizations who are doing the work, day in and day out.”
Protests broke out in Atlanta during the weekend over Brooks’ death. Rapper T.I. took to the streets, saying: “I don’t give a damn what your opinion is of the person. I don’t give a damn what he did. The man didn’t deserve to die like that. And any policeman out here who stands behind that shit your ass in trouble too.”
See Billie, Finneas, and Killer Mike’s posts below.
For resources in the fight against racism and police brutality, as well as a list of organizations you can donate to, click here.
On the music video for ‘breathe’,the latest single from Julia-Sophie’s debut EP, a bouquet of flowers is set on fire. It’s a potent metaphor for the Oxford-based singer-songwriter’s music, which unfolds much like a luscious flower – a thing of beauty that has grown out of pain, constantly in search of its own roots. On y?, Julia-Sophie digs into the deepest parts of her psyche to try to find a sense of resolution, which also involves confronting those buried emotions and setting them alight. The result is nothing short of hypnotic, a mystical fusion of light and darkness propelled by ominous synths, ethereal vocals, and inventive production that project strength through vulnerability. What remains is a flicker of hope: “With your heart in my hand/ I feel safe,” she sings on the stand-out opener ‘breathe’, and that sense of peaceful resolve emanates throughout. y? might be about letting things go, but these kinds of humane sentiments – and the songs in which they find a home – are worth holding onto.
We caught up with Julia-Sophie for this edition of our Artist Spotlight series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk a bit about their music.
What inspired you to start making music?
I’ve never been good at talking about how I feel, and I’ve always been in awe of people who know exactly how they feel and are comfortable with who they are. When I started making music, feelings that had sat inside me started to emerge. Since then I’ve always used music to try to express and understand myself. The desire to stop playing a part, focus my emotion and be myself, telling people about how I feel, has been my absolute focus and was my sole inspiration for making y?.
What are some of your influences?
My biggest influence is my urge to just exist. Life can sometimes feel like a wrenching dance, and writing and making music is my attempt to synchronise with the world around me. Life experiences, observations, hopes, dreams, heartaches, and conversations I have with other people are all part of it. I’m also inspired by watching and listening to other artists whom I respect and admire; I aspire to be as good an artist as I can be; within that, I hope to find a place where I can accept myself for who I am.
Musically, I’ve been influenced by all sorts of artists. I grew up in a household where my parents listened to mostly classic French artists such as Brassens, Brel, Aznavour, Barbara and blues artists like Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson and BB King, so I was never immersed in pop culture. Growing up in Oxford, UK, I was never sure how to fully relate to my parents’ music, but the one thing I took from all of it was the power of their voices and the guttural emotion that existed within it all. There was passion. That’s what music became for me – it’s never been about being technically good, it’s always been about the emotion it evokes, and how the music makes me feel.
Having missed out on a lot of popular culture, I always felt like an outsider and had to find my own way into discovering music. Friends helped me, and over the years I’ve listened to all kinds of music and tried to find myself within it. I don’t know if I will ever feel part of a musical tribe; I guess we pick up and lose parts of various artists we relate to for different reasons as we navigate life – some bits stick and some bits don’t and we become a collage of all those experiences. As an artist, maybe I’m edging closer to finding my ultimate love in the kind of music that has certainly influenced me during the making of y?. I’m digging deeper into the world of electronic music, like Art School Girlfriend, James Blake, Thom Yorke, Caribou and TT. But whatever I listen to I have to be able to connect to the singer’s heart and instinctively feel their intention.
You’ve said that your songs are about “finding comfort in emotions buried deep for years”. What sort of emotions do you try to evoke in your music?
All of the songs on my EP come from feelings of truths that I had not accepted about myself until this point, and some that I’m still working through and even discovering for the first time: waking up to them and trying my best to understand and face all kinds of feelings; new feelings of love, of living, life, contradictions and pain. It’s ironic that sometimes the most beautiful things grow out of the deepest pain; acceptance and vulnerability; learning to be soft instead of letting it all harden you; waking up to traumas, to a lot of the deepest fears and starting to embrace them. I guess my biggest quest is to try to evoke a true feeling. Not to skirt around it but to tap into the gut as much as I possibly can. I would like my music to say to people “hey, let’s take down the walls we built and connect with ourselves; in weakness there is strength. It’s okay to stop running away from it all”. I mean, it’s easier said than done and y? is my first attempt at achieving this. I’m still not ready to talk explicitly about my personal life experiences, for so many reasons, but I’m guessing that one day I will be. That’s the aim, right? Goodness knows, I’m trying.
How was the experience of writing and recording y??
I always start by recording demos on my phone at my home in Oxford, as I don’t like anyone else watching me when I write. Sometimes songs start on a keyboard but mostly on the guitar. I always outline a song with at least a verse, sometimes two, always a chorus and if I’m attentive, a bridge. My life is pretty hectic so I’m used to having to write under pressure. Some songs can be fully formed before recording them, but sometimes I’m happy to leave them open, so that they can take on a different life in the studio. I’m happy to then write additional lyrics and even change melodies.
After I’d written a bunch of songs, I took them to my friend B’s studio in Brighton where we recorded them together. Brighton is a couple of hours drive from Oxford and leaving my home town to record felt very symbolic as to where I was at in my life. I was feeling change and I wanted to record somewhere where I could start to explore myself as an artist and a person differently to how I had done in the past; a fresh start, so to speak.
I was very private about this whole experience and I only spoke about it to a few friends. Before actually recording the songs, B and I would spend lots of time talking, catching up and listening to music that we had both been enjoying. After listening to the demos, we decided which songs we would record and where we envisioned the sound of them to be. The recordings went through several rounds of back and forth, where we would take long breaks from recording, maybe a month or so, so that we could develop a cold ear with which to listen back when we met up again. The most important thing for me over this whole process was never to lose track of the original intention of the song and to let the music to find its voice.
What was the inspiration for the title?
I didn’t know where I was heading; I’ve got a lot of different sides to me and I struggle with aligning them all. With y? I found myself writing about things that people close to me would not even know that I was feeling. The last two years, I’ve been trying to understand myself and had to ask myself so many questions, why have I done what I’ve done and why have I become the person that I am? Why do we fall in love? Why do we fall apart? I’ve tried to get to the most honest version of me. Asking myself y? has been very important to me.
What are you currently working on, and what are your plans for the future?
I’m currently spending time with my own thoughts and pretty distressed at the state of the world, but with all that in mind, I’m slowly carving out a second EP. I guess nobody quite knows what the world is going to look like for artists in the coming years as the landscape is rapidly changing. I hope one day that I can get on the road, tour, travel, meet people, perform my music live, and keep creating. That is my dream right now. To feel alive. To live life fully. One day, I plan to make a full record, and who knows, maybe even a second and then a third.
Nikolaus Gruenwald, a photographer out of Germany known for beautiful architectural photography, has released a superb ambience-filled nature series named The Emptiness Within.
Find more brilliant work by Nikolaus Gruenwald here.
Héloïse Letissier aka Christine and the Queens appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon to perform ‘I Disappear in Your Arms’, the bonus track from her most recent EP, La vita nuova. Shot in an empty music venue, the performance aired on Friday (June 12). Check it out below.
The La vita nuova EP was released back in February, following her 2018 album Chris. Last month, Letissier performed ‘People, I’ve been sad’ from her home for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The singer has also posted a series of covers while in quarantine, including Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold’, The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’, and Travis Scott’s ‘Highest In The Room’, in addition to hosting weekly livestreams.
Christine and the Queens is currently working on her third studio album, as she recently confirmed. “The new songs are surprisingly hopeful, and I’ve never described myself as that,” she said. “It’s upsetting because I don’t know how to deal with that! I’ve always said I have a French tormented soul. I have a cool concept for the record, I think.”
2020 has brought a relentless flood of unpleasant news. While we need to face the realities of our changing world, we should also take care of ourselves and our mental health. Here are eight uplifting films to help you take a break amid the chaos of everything going on in the world right now.
Amélie (2001)
This iconic French film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet stars Audrey Tautou as the titular character. Amélie is a young woman who was raised and homeschooled by her parents after they mistakenly diagnosed her with a heart condition. Growing up in Paris isolated from peers her age, Amélie comes off as a little strange but has a wild imagination. The film’s quirky and tongue-in-cheek narration complements Amélie’s unique personality and disinterest in the mundane.
Amélie enjoys helping other people find happiness, but can’t seem to find her own. When she’s startled by the news of Princess Diana’s death, she drops the lid of her perfume bottle, which knocks against a tile in the wall and unlocks a secret compartment. Inside, she finds a box of childhood possessions that she’s determined to return to their owner. This discovery leads her on a series of adventures around Paris, bumping into quirky people and playing cat-and-mouse with love.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
With 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and numerous awards for its screenplay – including an Academy Award – this Parisian story is arguably even more romantic than Amélie. Owen Wilson stars as a screenwriter named Gil Pender in this dramatic role, but still offers the occasional comedic quirk. Gil is on a visit to Paris with his fiancé and her parents, who aren’t too fond of him. He’s trying to write his first novel, unsure if he’s capable of the task, and finds inspiration on his midnight walks through the city.
Every night at midnight he stumbles through time into his golden age: 1920s Paris, which seems to be crowded with all of his literary idols, from Fitzgerald to Hemingway, as well as artistic icons like Picasso. Gil takes their advice while, during the day, he tries to convince his fiancé to move to Paris with him. The lack of logic surrounding Gil’s ability to time travel is a purposeful acknowledgement of the movie’s magic.
Booksmart (2019)
Olivia Wilde’s low-budget directorial debut was a potential international hit, but sadly flopped at the global box office only making $24.9 million. Though many viewers were quick to compare it to the 2007 film Superbad – which stars Jonah Hill, the brother of Booksmart‘s Beanie Feldstein – Wilde’s film cannot be reduced to the “male version” of Superbad.
Best friends Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) are about to graduate high school with perfect grades and records, but without some of the experiences, their classmates have. The girls vow to break some rules on their last day and attend at least one party to prove that they’re “fun”. The night takes them on a series of unexpected adventures and discoveries without compromising on humour.
Sing Street (2016)
This award-winning Irish teen movie is quirkier and grittier than the usual musical romance. On his first day at a new private school, Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) tries to impress an aspiring model, Raphina (Lucy Boynton), by telling her he needs a model for his band’s music video. He does not have a band. Earlier that day, Conor meets a self-proclaimed entrepreneur named Darren (Ben Carolan) who helps him manage the band. Their first recruitment is Eamon, who calls himself a multi-instrumentalist.
The band begins to practice, and they’re terrible, but Conor can’t back out of the situation now. They do eventually shoot the music video he told Raphina about. She gives Conor the nickname “Cosmo” and helps the band cultivate their style. Over time, the band gathers a small following, and Conor commits to becoming a musician while at home, his family life gets complicated.
Lion (2016)
Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel star in this true story of Saroo Brierley’s journey to reunite with his biological mother. At the age of five, he is separated from his family in India. After a lonely and frightening experience trying to find his way back home, he’s sent to an orphanage and adopted by an Australian couple.
In Australia, Saroo lives a happy life, but the couple’s other adopted son, Mantosh, is more troubled. Twenty years after his adoption, Saroo is studying hotel management but feels the urge to search for his family. He uses Google Earth to find his hometown, leading him on an emotional journey of self-discovery.
Billy Elliot (2000)
Set during the 1984 miners’ strike in England, this film tells the story of a working-class boy named Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) who discovers his passion for ballet in an environment where male dancers were disparaged. Billy is determined to improve his dancing and make a career out of it, much to his father’s disappointment. Julie Walters stars as Billy’s dance teacher and encourages his father (Gary Lewis) to be proud of his young son.
Love Actually (2003)
Richard Curtis directs this romantic comedy that follows eight different couples in London in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The star-studded ensemble cast offers an array of unique performances and quirky characters, from an eleven-year-old kid to a retired, forgotten pop star.
Hugh Grant plays the newly elected British Prime Minister, whose voiceover opens the film and tells us that during the 9/11 terrorist attack, the victims left messages of love, not hate. Given the context of this film’s release, it does a decent job of tackling the seemingly impossible task of reinforcing our belief in humanity’s capacity to love.
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
Starring Hailee Steinfeld as Nadine, this coming-of-age dramedy is about the tumultuousness of growing up in high school. Nadine thinks she’s awkward and undesirable, and things only get worse when her best friend (Haley Lu Richardson) starts dating her brother (Blake Jenner). However, Nadine finds a mentor in Mr. Bruner, one of her school teachers (Woody Harrelson), as she tries to navigate the world of high school romance.
As things spiral out of control, so does Nadine’s self-esteem and mental health. She confides in Mr. Bruner – with whom she shares a hilarious back-and-forth – which helps her become her own person and think more introspectively. Kelly Fremon Craig wrote the critically acclaimed film in her directorial debut.
