Defined by inventive production that draws inspiration from an intersection of 80s Japanese avant pop, Compass Point synth funk and Brazilian rainforest textures, Fluorescences is the first single from forthcoming album ZEBRA by Arp, aka Alexis Georgopoulos. Now, he has shared a mind-bending video for the track. Shot on Super8 film by cinematographer Shawn Brackbill, art directed by Georgopoulos and edited by the video star Monica Hofstadter, it was shot on location in New York, where the album was also made. Check it out via YouTube below.
Georgopoulos says of the video, ”The song itself is quite playful, really. As it took shape, it kind of felt as if it started glowing. So, I started joking around that it was a love song about fluorescent tubes! Which is it is, in part, explains Georgopoulos. Id always loved the idea of Kraftwerk writing this incredible, romantic song about the lights of the city at night (Neon Lights), which really is one of their great tracks. And I sort of went with that kind of idea, and Fluoresences became while stylistically something altogether very different an analog of sorts. A love song to light. To this very modern, sort of alien phenomenon. But, a kind of springtime glow, a strange oxymoron.”
“Originally, we’d wanted to shoot it on VHS, but it didnt materialize easily so we went with Super 8, which, strangely, can share certain qualities with VHS, in terms of how light saturates the film,” he adds. ”We’d been watching that Wim Wenders documentary Notebooks on Cities and Clothes and Elizabeth Lennards Tokyo Melody, and there were qualities we were after that wed loved about those documentaries.”
A mutant offspring of diverse stylings, unlikely convergences, unfixed constellations, ‘ZEBRA,’ Alexis Georgopoulos – aka Arp – fifth full-length album, is a post-everything symbiosis of ancient to future psychotropics, emphasizing points of connectivity between far-flung traditions. ‘ZEBRA’ is as naturalistic as it is alien, disrupting outdated boundaries between musical traditions, hierarchies and genre politics.
Using forward-looking production techniques and an idiosyncratic instrumental palette analog synthesizers, double bass, Fender Rhodes, electronic and acoustic drums, flute, vintage harmonizers and tape delay Georgopoulos proposes a vast, shimmering prospect, floralizing an array of styles and smiles Fourth World tremors, vibey Cosmic Jazz, 80s Japanese production, floating kosmische drum atmospherics.
Emphasizing ‘points of connectivity’ in a time when reactive and fractious isolationism threaten in divisive ways, ‘ZEBRA’ is the sound of interaction. ‘ZEBRA’ seeks something beyond definition of singularity perspective and division. It is constructive instead of flippant: ecstatic instead of wallowing; clear-eyed instead of opiated, romantic instead of cynical.
Like the zebra, Georgopoulos latest album revels in contrast / duality – Naturalistic + alien. Urban + rural. Calm + unsettling. Lucid + mysterious. Bold simplicity + fiendish complexity. The result is a portal to a more curious world that compels repeat visits.
‘Zebra’ track listing
(Mexican Summer, June 22nd, 2018)
Halflight Visions
Nzuku
Flourescences
Folding Water
Foam
Parallelism
Moving Target
A Clearing
Ozu
Reading A Wave
Fiji
Pre-order ‘Zebra’: http://smarturl.it/ArpZebra
