DPA via spiegel.de
Sometimes falling in love with a song takes time. You hear it again and again on the radio, get used to it, and in the end you either hate or love it. And sometimes you happen to stumble across some piece of music somewhere, and you’re captivated from the very first second on, need to know the artist and title and then you listen to it again and again in infinite loop, have the song on your mind when you wake up in the morning, and desperately miss it, when you’re on the street and don’t have a mp3 device with you. This happened to me last week, when I watched Elie Saab’s fall/winter 2013/14 fashion show, the last show of the past fashion month. The soundtrack of the show totally caught me. It corresponded so well with my emotions, and made me sense the clothes of that very stong, powerful collection, the melancholy of fashion month being over (yes, really…) and in the end just the music itself.
A very quick google research tells me that the name of the artist, who’s work was mixed with a bit of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, is Woodkid, and he was immediately added to my spotify list. But my love story has a second part. Today I was going to read a bit about him (when I was supposed to read for university…), found an article on spiegel.de and soon was equally captivated by the amazing artist, that I had just discovered for myself. French Yoann Lemoine, which is his real name, had been working as a graphic designer and music video director before he started making his own music. As a video director he was responsible for Lana del Rey’s Born to die and Taylor Swifts Back to December. He participated in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that his own videos deserve a lot of attention. I first watched the video of I love you, my favourite song from the fashion show. We see a young man playing the organ for what seems to be a very orthodox religious community. And at the same time this man, in utter desperation, crosses a vast, wild landscape of rocks, mountains and glaciers; and eventually gets to the sea. Again, the pictures and the music correspond so well. I watched the other two films of the songs Iron and Run, boy, run, too. They are connected by an underlying storyline, and recurring symbolic elements, starting with Iron, which features Agyness Deyn, then Run, boy, run, and finally I love you. The last one still is my favourite, and the video was taken in (my beloved) Iceland, the beach scenes shot near the beach of Vik, which mesmerized me, when I was travelling the Icelandic South Coast (link). Even though song and video are about a desperate, unrequited love, I don’t find it depressing, but rather get into a positive mood.
Elie Saab turns out not be the first fashion show that uses Lemoine’s music. Last year, Dior hommes designer Kris van Assche, who is a close friend of Lemoine, used Iron. But the song was not only part of the show’s play list. The whole collection was inspired by Iron and fashion (well, “clothing”) lover Lemoine, and is named Soldier on my own, which is a line of the lyrics. Van Assche in return styled the I love you video. The collection reflects the heroic and military atmosphere of the song. The way, in which Lemoine uses symbols, is one of the most striking aspects of his work. Besides the military thing, there are many religious motives, travelling and the sea, fantastic creatures, in his minimal, monochrome world. Lemoine names travels to his Eastern European roots, and his grandparents’ stories about the war (sounds familiar), as the things that inspired him the most. He calls himself an artist and says that for him music and the visual are interconnected. And working out that connection is what he just succeeds at, so well. Watch the videos on his website! And let me know if you like them as much as I do. I’m still dreaming…
Woodkid’s first album Golden Age, which describes the process of transgrading into adulthood, will be available in just one week, when the artist turns 30. I’m excited.
official woodkid website – official Yoann Lemoine website - interview - Link to the making-of and precise locations in Iceland - German Spiegel article - wiki en/de
Elie Saab fashionshow – Dior hommes Fashion Show
I couldn’t resist taking (a lot of…) screencaps from I love you on woodkid.com
…click for more….
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