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And You Are There: Damon & Naomi’s collaboration with Chris Marker

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Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, formerly of cult favorites, Galaxie 500, began recording in 1992 as Damon & Naomi. Their first album, More Sad Hits was produced by Bongwater’s Kramer (who produced Galaxie 500’s albums, too) and is one of my top favorite albums. It’s extremely pretty, has intelligent lyrics and one of the best guitar solos I’ve ever heard. The great Robert Wyatt said of that album: “Like real water in a world of soda pop.”

Too true! I was actually a silent onlooker in the studio when some of the record was being recorded and mixed, because Kramer and I were collaborating on a screenplay and they, and I, were house-guests at his Demarest, NJ home at the same time. It was a real treat for this fly-on-the-wall “rock snob,” I can assure you.

For their upcoming release, False Beats and True Hearts, the dreamy avant-gardists have just released a new “video” by French artist and filmmaker Chris Marker.

Naomi Yang writes on the Damon & Naomi blog:

We are delighted to announce a new “video” by visual artist Chris Marker. Consisting of a single still image set to a song from our forthcoming album, the project is being hosted by the Wire Magazine.

“The song, ‘And You Are There,’ is about the way time can compress when you are lost in a memory, something I have learned a lot about from Chris Marker’s work—his films (La Jetée, Sans Soleil), his writing (Immemory), his photographs. When the song was finished, I sent it to Chris with a note—since his work had provided inspiration for the song, I wondered, might he in turn have a visual response to it? He sent back this image, with the note:

“Dunno if it fits your pretty Proustian melancholy, but I thought it could… And thanks for linking me to music, the only real art for me as you know (cinema? you kiddin’...)”

Watch Chris Marker’s “video” for Damon & Naomi’s “And You Are There” here:
 

 
Below “E.T.A”—how incredible is this song?!?!
 

 
H/T Chris Campion of Berlin, Germany!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.09.2011
10:48 am
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