I fell in love with a store today, Pip-Squeak Chapeau.

It’s the three month old, concept store of designer Sveta Dresher.

(this pic doesn’t do it justice)

There was something magical about the whitewashed floorboards and videography on the walls playing to Arvo Pärt (who’s name she kindly wrote down for me).  The multi-sensory experience was like walking through clouds and made me want to touch each of the natural fiber, frilly and knitty items – the perfect environment for such tactile things.

I wanted everything!  From every hand-made chiffon skirt and knitted dress, to each carefully chosen journal…this is going to be dangerous…

At least my new found obsession with Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt won’t cost me too much:

On a chirpier note, watch Björk interview Arvo Pärt for the BBC program “Modern Minimalist” (1997)

yay!  it’s friday

via icelandish

Friday night, we went to the Procession of the Ghouls (thanks to Aaron).  It was pretty much the most awesome Haloween thing ever.

First of all, it took place at Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is on 112st and Amsterdam, so I already felt like I was on another planet.  St. John the Divine is apparently the oldest Gothic church in the US and the 4th largest church in the world (it is HUGE!)

They showed the original 1922, Nosferatu with (epic) live organ accompaniment.

Nosferatu is actually in the public domain, you can watch it on youtube or download it for free from the internet archive.

After the film came the Procession of the Ghouls.

The rest of the wacky photos are here.

my neighborhood has everything…

and pumpkins too!

to see the rest of the undercurrent gang at Stuart’s Farm, click here.

I am (finally!) going to see sin fang bous tonight.  i might actually burst with happiness

(lisa, i can feel your jealousy from all the way across the pond

My new buddy Aziz, sent me a link to this project a week ago and while i love it, I wasn’t going to post about it b/c it’s already made it around the blogosphere, but then I went to see Paranormal Activity, last night (thanks)

which has made me pretty hyper aware of sounds all day. So I got to thinking about the Soundville experiment – which is Sony’s latest Bravia-esque advertisement, but this time about the art, science and engineering of sound and brought to you by Fallon, London and Juan Cabral (a la Cadbury Gorilla):

1 village, 805 participants, 13 musical artists.  Welcome to Soundville:

In March 2009 a small town in Iceland was filled with speakers.The Seyðisfjörður village was turned into an extraordinary sound-system for a week. Sounds by Richard Fearless ( Death in Vegas ) Mum, Bob Dylan, Toumani Diabate,  Roberto Goyeneche, Murcof, Federico Cabral, Guillemots, etc.

I went to the Soundville website to hunt for some more information; the site is simple, to not detract attention from the sound and leads with this quote, which I am digging:

If for one moment – just for an instant – the walls disappear and you imagine you are somewhere else, then you’ve experienced the power of sound.

For me, these “instances” are more natural and frequent when listening to experimental musicians like Sigur Rós, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ben Frost, Benni Hemm Hemm, Amiina, Jónsi & Alex, etc. Which makes Seydisfordur such a perfect setting for this kind of experiment.

I <3 <3 <3 <3 this project!  Sony must have done something right to get an entire (and very creative) community to participate in an advertisement.  Bravo.

Making of:

Test 1:

Test 2:

If you are in the mood for more art sounds, check out Pierre Bastien’s site.

I love this combination of art, technology and fans:

Born in 1987, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjavík. He has immersed himself completely in a world of delicate symphonic compositions generating near weightless orchestral pieces. Arnalds explores the crossover from classical to pop by mixing chamber strings and piano with discreet electronics.  His motivations are clear: “The classical scene is kind of closed to people who haven’t been studying music all their lives. I would like to bring my classical influence to the people who don’t usually listen to this kind of music…open people’s minds.”

In April 2009, Ólafur created the 7-song series ‘Found Songs’ – recording a song a day for 7 days and instantly making each track available via Twitter. With artwork contributions from fans via Flickr, this modern release awakens memories of a tradition that seemed lost in the digital age we live in.

Ólafur conceived ‘Found Songs’ as a way to collate several lost and found musical sketches and ideas in a ’very challenging, but fun’ series. The experiment offers its listeners an intimate insight into Ólafur Arnalds’ creative world. ’The songs will be different from what’s on my albums; they will be short, mostly just made up from piano. Something to keep me going…’

So far more than 100.000 people downloaded the ‘Found Songs’ series via foundsongs.erasedtapes.com. Hosting this project on their official website, Erased Tapes Records watched the collaboration between Arnalds and his online audience flourish and found it fitting to combine the music and artwork into one complete work. A re-mastered physical and limited edition will now be released as a CD, 10” Vinyl and high-quality Download.

via foundsongs.erasedrecords.com

this kinda made my day:

(via Claudia’s facebook page)

I found myself having lots of iceland conversations this weekend, which reminded me of this awesome footage by hal linker.