We missed this one earlier this year, but we’re happy to make up for it now. The tilt-shift imagery is spectacular. And the green just pops off the screen! This video single, now available on Galaverna, breaks new ground in format and film. 

Sono solamente 4 minuti e 26 secondi, ma potrebbero durare un’eternità. Una traccia che seduce, ammalia con un incantesimo d’altri tempi. Un sortilegio nascosto tra le folate di vento costante che abitano i luoghi solitari descritti da Andreas Bick: un’isola adagiata sul nero rappreso delle sue antiche eruzioni, il verde abbagliante dei rari alberi cresciuti sul nulla, l’azzurro intenso di un cielo di nuvole sempre in movimento e la voce, la splendida voce di Almut Kuhne che sembra galleggiare ed avvolgersi dentro quel turbinio creato da Eolo. Galaverna abbandona per un istante il suo vagare oltre il termine ‘ricerca’ e si nutre con la purezza del sogno [Mirco Salvadori/ricerca musicale Massimo Caner]

A clue to the contents of Andreas Bick’s recent release on Galaverna can be found in the title ‘Eolo’, the Italian name for Aeolus, the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology. The work consists of two parts; an audio only piece and a video work. Both draw inspiration and indeed content from the trade winds that pass over the volcanic island of La Palma, situated in the Canary Islands archipelago, which Bick visited towards the end of 2010. The audio only element of ‘Eolo’ combines field recordings with the haunting vocals of German singer Almut Kühne. While the voice of Kühne remains a fairly constant aspect of the four and a half minute composition, the presence of wind is more transient, with recordings almost naturally moving in and out of the piece. This similarity to the changeable nature of wind can only be deliberate and is a thoughtful touch. The accompanying video takes this composition and applies it to footage gathered by Bick over a two week period in the autumn of 2010. While the audio only version is pleasant to listen to, it is by no means exceptional. In my opinion the work really shines when the two elements of sound and moving image come together. ‘Eolo’ as an audiovisual work is strikingly beautiful; the time-lapse recordings have been edited to create a highly attractive short film that seems almost surreal at times. It is with this coming together of the visual and the acoustic that the spirit of Eolo is truly invoked. With just over a year and five releases under their belt, Galaverna is in a perfect position to experiment, diversify and not be tied down to a particular style. It will be interesting to see what road this exciting label decides to take. [Cheryl Tipp]

Galaverna here takes a turn to the medium of video, featuring ‘Eolo’, Andreas Bick‘s newest work. Shot on the Spanish volcanic island of La Palma, the video is a sort of study of the island’s unique cycles of wind, cloud and fog. The piece begins with stuttering fields of sound and video close to the forest floor, but quickly evolves to a sort of cantata featuring the voice of Almut Kühne accompanied by both the wind itself and variously processed versions thereof. There is a simple narrative arc beginning with the sounds and sights available to an observer on the ground of the island, which slowly gains altitude both through the soaring vocals of Kühne and literally through an elevating perspective of the island. The jittery video effects of the first section are short-lived, and the majority of the work features simple time-shifting of shots – showing the tumultuous but ultimately rhythmic patterns of the fog and clouds in full effect. While Kühne’s vocals are quite pretty (think Akira Rabelais’s or Max Richter’s layered choral works) they are perhaps too vapourous to give the listener much to hold on to. The work’s real strength is in the stark contrast of the footage throughout. Several shots in the middle of its four and a half minutes reveal starkly beautiful trees growing out of what seems to be little more than rock, and spaced unnaturally evenly at that – the cover art being a perfect example of this terrain. I was at first reluctant to accept that some of the scenes were not, in fact, finely constructed miniatures, such is the surrealism of the contrast of chlorophyll and basalt. While there is certainly some post-processing of the saturation and contrast involved, it is tasteful. With each tree’s needles piled immediately below, and little other foliage, the tidy and widely spaced forest is occasionally reminiscent of a cemetery – perhaps enhanced by the fugue-like overtones of the vocal track. ‘Eolo’ is at its best when the striking geography is left to more or less speak for itself, and the ascension from forest floor to suspension in the clouds ties the piece together nicely. While I am not particularly partial to the soundtrack itself, many will find it a beautiful accompaniment to this work. You can find it at Galaverna’s site.

“‘Eolo’ is the Italian name for Aeolus, the ruler of the wind in Greek mythology. On La Palma, trade winds carry a constant stream of clouds over the steep mountains and volcanos of the inland, forcing the clouds into erratic movements.” This Galaverna release has a somewhat unusual format: it consist of a short (4 minute) audio-track and its accompanying video, shot on La Palma, Canary Islands, in 2010. The field recording soundtrack and the time lapse images from the La Palma cloud movements are taken to a completely different dimension by the angelic vocals of Almut Kühne.