Griff says; Welcome to a separate reality - Colorform and Sarah Valeri

Good news, Streetlampers! Our long-time, favourite NYC band, Colorform, are poised to release a new EP. Cue much joy at Streetlamp HQ. Unfortunately, due to the presence of the pesky Atlantic Ocean, we won't be able to attend the EP release party tomorrow, but those of you in and around New York City may be interested to know that the band can be found at the Parkside Lounge (317 E Houston btwn B and C) tomorrow night. Guest performer Khaled is on at 8:00 p.m. followed by Colorform themselves at 9:00 p.m.  Entry is a mere $5 and, what's more, everyone attending gets a free copy of the new EP. It's Colorform's last show of the year, so get yourself down there!

To get you in the mood, here's a track named Separate, from the new EP, released as a teaser and available as a free download on the band's soundcloud page. :






If you've read my previous writings on Colorform you'll know that I find this band particularly intriguing due to their synaesthetic merging of music and visual art and to their inclusion of cello as an integral part of their sound. That cello, by turns intimate or fiery, but always graceful, is weilded by the lovely Matt Logan, who as well as being a cellist is also a photographer, political activist and producer of the excellent ventilate blog.

As intimated above, Colorform's company also includes a visual artist, in the shape of Sarah Valeri. It is this integration of improvised visual art that adds another whole dimension to the Colorform experience and sets them apart from other bands. Before any live performance, and even in rehearsals, you will see a blank canvas laid out on a wall or the floor. Over the course of a set, this will be transformed into a full work, inspired by the music and the energy of the room.

Sarah's work can be found at her wordpress site  and, in particular, I'd like to draw your attention to her current work in progress 'The Fugitive's Astronomy Club'. This is a series of  drawings that Sarah hopes to transform, sometime in the future, into little art books, probably with stories attached.
The Fugitive's Astronomy Club drawings feature characters who Sarah imagines as anarchic wanderers, and as part of a unique exhibition project she has been sending selected reproductions through the mail to recipients all around the world, one person at a time. I am rather pleased and proud to say that I have received some of these reproductions here at Streetlamp HQ, which fittingly are from the story of Hester, who collects sounds. They really are very beautiful and have received wonderful comments from my rather envious friends. Here are some of the Hester images for your enjoyment:

Whatever happened to Hester’s house?

 Hester Empty Handed

 Hester in the park

Hester on the Staten Island Ferry

Thoughts in Hester's House

Hope you loved those as much as I do. Keep checking the Streetlamp for more details of the new Colorform EP and for the future adventures of The Fugitive's Astronomy Club.

Griff

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Griff Says; It's Colorform - in sound and vision.

What a great month May has been so far for music. I've been so busy that I've neglected to mention Colorform; something that I've been meaning to do for some time and which I intend to remedy now. I came across Colorform on the CLLCT web-site and was immediately impressed by both the quality and the diversity of the songs on offer. I was also intrigued by the complementary visual element, which is part of the complete Colorform experience. You see, the musical component of Colorform comprises of; singer, lyricist, and guitarist Kate Logan, cellist Matt Logan and guitarist Ben Deibert. Seems straight-forward enough, right? However, in addition to the world of aural expression, Colorform also encompasses visual art. At all live performances and in rehearsals, NYC artist Sarah Valeri provides simultaneous live artwork, a process in which the two art forms are mutually inspired. When performing with the band, Sarah tapes a few sheets of drawing paper on the ground and uses pastels to draw on them as the music plays. Depending on the length of the set, she finishes one or two sheets of drawing. Each painting is unique and has a part of the venue in it. The drawings are up for sale after the show. Sarah is very much presented as an integral part of the band and at live shows her name is included in the band member introduction; “Sarah Valeri on colors".

As I've already mentioned , you can see Sarah's artwork, listen to the music and even download it for free at their CLLCT web-site. So why should you? Well, for those of you who need further convincing, we here at 'Streetlamp' have decided to give you a small taster of Colorform's unique brand of independent expression. We've provided two sample videos (below), which attempt to showcase the Colorform audio-visual experience. One of the things that has impressed me most about Colorform is that the band don't fall into the popular music cliche of using bowed strings as an afterthought to provide a superficial touch of classical sophistication. On the contrary, Matt's cello is absolutely central to the sound, and demonstrates an astonishing breadth of tone and expression. Possibly because of this, it can be difficult to describe the Colorform sound. On some songs, I think I can hear something akin to the stylish dream-pop of The Sundays, while on others their is an angrier almost aggressive vibe at work. If that sounds contradictory then have a listen and make your own mind up.

Hope you enjoyed those. The band can also be found on facebook, myspace and virb.

Griff
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