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News from Anne
Xavier Gautier, Anne Laplantine's husband, dropped by today on his way to Malmo in Sweden (where he's spending a week at the foot of Calatrava's Turning Torso building). He brought me a handwritten letter and CD from Anne, 
who's keen to repudiate rumours that she's given up music in favour of playing endless games of go, rather as Marcel Duchamp gave up art for chess. Here (translated from French) is what she has to say:
"Bonjour Nick,
you see, I do continue to make music. At least, to think about it. I'm playing go a lot. I adore it. You said in an article that I'm one of those Westerners who become fascinated with Asia. I don't think that's really the case with me. In fact, I adore strategy games. When I was young I spent a lot of time playing with a Rubik's cube, or Patience, or solving mathematical conundrums. I also played chess. But above all, I did a lot of drawing. I adore shapes, games of construction, logic. I think that it was through Lego that I rediscovered drawing. As for Asia, it's far away, and I don't feel that playing go brings me much closer to it.
And music is still there, even if I never make a new album, let's see, things happen by encounters. Rather than Marcel Duchamp, I think often of Dreyer, an important director for me, who stopped making films for eleven years. Then he made Ordet, Jour de Colere, magnificent films. He stopped during the transition period between the silent age and the arrival of the talkies. And I think that he has an extraordinary feel for sound.
I think we're also living now in a transitional period which I'm not sure I can define. All I know is that I feel the need to wait a bit.
There it is, meanwhile I'm liking life in Paris a lot (more than in Berlin), there are lots of cinemas. I don't go to them much but I know they're there and that people are going to see films. There are lots of people, that's what I like so much.
See you soon -- when are you coming to Paris?
Anne
(If you want to put my new pieces on your blog, you can)"
Well, how could I refuse an offer like that? Here's my favourite of the four tracks she gave me:
Anne Laplantine: Spring Won't Find Us (mp3 file, 3.1MB, 3 mins. 26 secs.)
In this song's plaintive call for "clearness, transparence" I can hear exactly the spiritual transformation Anne is describing. It's not silence she's moving towards, but light.
who's keen to repudiate rumours that she's given up music in favour of playing endless games of go, rather as Marcel Duchamp gave up art for chess. Here (translated from French) is what she has to say:"Bonjour Nick,
you see, I do continue to make music. At least, to think about it. I'm playing go a lot. I adore it. You said in an article that I'm one of those Westerners who become fascinated with Asia. I don't think that's really the case with me. In fact, I adore strategy games. When I was young I spent a lot of time playing with a Rubik's cube, or Patience, or solving mathematical conundrums. I also played chess. But above all, I did a lot of drawing. I adore shapes, games of construction, logic. I think that it was through Lego that I rediscovered drawing. As for Asia, it's far away, and I don't feel that playing go brings me much closer to it.
And music is still there, even if I never make a new album, let's see, things happen by encounters. Rather than Marcel Duchamp, I think often of Dreyer, an important director for me, who stopped making films for eleven years. Then he made Ordet, Jour de Colere, magnificent films. He stopped during the transition period between the silent age and the arrival of the talkies. And I think that he has an extraordinary feel for sound.
I think we're also living now in a transitional period which I'm not sure I can define. All I know is that I feel the need to wait a bit.
There it is, meanwhile I'm liking life in Paris a lot (more than in Berlin), there are lots of cinemas. I don't go to them much but I know they're there and that people are going to see films. There are lots of people, that's what I like so much.
See you soon -- when are you coming to Paris?
Anne
(If you want to put my new pieces on your blog, you can)"
Well, how could I refuse an offer like that? Here's my favourite of the four tracks she gave me:
Anne Laplantine: Spring Won't Find Us (mp3 file, 3.1MB, 3 mins. 26 secs.)
In this song's plaintive call for "clearness, transparence" I can hear exactly the spiritual transformation Anne is describing. It's not silence she's moving towards, but light.
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Well, I'm probably misunderstanding, coz she seems very special.
Also--That's an awesome hurdy-gurdy.
is that some kind of kantele?
she sounds as intuitive as her sounds
what she says about returning directors..just thought i would say that theres a Peter Whitehead retrospective touring this year and maybe he is making another movie after a feew decades..
as she says..feeling the need to wait a bit...thats it..
i had that confirmed by astrodienst free thursday long term astrological projections after feeling its presence in the everyday all this year..
the actively passive..
dont know if there are connections among us all on this..
could be beautifully misinterpreting..
as for the Go and its strategy..oh yes
" one of the lessons of Go is prepare to lose at least 50 times..."
Light
It is very interesting that you are saying that... Considering her passion for Dreyer, as described in her letter, who was (and still is) an unsurpassed master in manipulating light, it seems that the movement towards light is a natural outcome of the Dreyer influence--albeit, in a slightly different art form.
Speaking of Paris and cinema, this is one of the reasons I have often thought of moving to Paris. It's abundance of cinemas and cinémathèques.
Mitsos
New York, NY
Re: Light
A lot of this cinema is neither French nor Anglo-Saxon, and I think "The Other" willingly allows itself to "reduce" to these dimensions... but of course it's not a reduction at all, more a mutual seduction under the star of humanism.
clearness, transparence
(Anonymous) 2006-08-05 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)Anne might like to play through some of the games of the great go-player Go Seigen, full as they are of clearness, transparence and brightness.
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour. (Blake)
gomad361
Re: clearness, transparence
(Anonymous) 2006-08-05 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)I used to play at your Hammersmith Go Club in the early 80s, and I've just been playing today at the Central London Go Club.
We should have slapped an export ban on those Go Seigen volumes that you took with you to the US.
ilxor
Re: clearness, transparence
(Anonymous) 2006-08-06 12:59 am (UTC)(link)no subject
She said you could and everything.
Go on, then...
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i don't think she's sung on a song since the michiko days(maybe i'm wrong),
so it's extra special.
it reminded me of some of the stuff on this cd,
http://www.numerogroup.com/catalog_detail.php?uid=00255 ,
but glitched up for the post-modern age.
oh, and from the letter it sounded like she only gave you permission to post *all* the tracks, not just one ;)
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I LOVE THIS!!!
CRIMINAL that I can't track down her stuff on mail order ANYWHERE! :(
exchange
(Anonymous) 2006-08-06 12:51 am (UTC)(link)Being in Paris with many strong go-players, Anne probably has no shortage of willing and expert teachers but, if she would like, I'd be happy to exchange teaching games.
gomad361
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http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/surfing-in-tandem/2006/08/03/1154198260720.html
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And I must say that of all the music your blogs in their forms have directed me towards, AP rates highest (along with Discom and Dorine Muraille). So thanks!
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