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 artiest:
ELIZABETH ANKA VAJAGIC
song: Why
cd: Stand with the stillness of this day
label/referentie: Constellation/Bang/CST028
Why uit
Stand with the stillness of this day, het debuut van Elizabeth
Anka Vajagic, een zangeres en gitariste uit Montréal in
Canada. De plaat is uit op Constellation, het label uit Montréal
dat naam en faam heeft gemaakt met dat typische geluid van bijvoorbeeld
Godspeed You Black Emperor, Hangedup of A Silver Mt. Zion. Lang
niet slecht dus om op te debuteren. Maar blijkt dat Elizabeth
Anka Vajagic al acht jaar muziek maakt en nu pas boven water
komt. Wat niet wil zeggen dat ze acht jaar aan die plaat heeft
gewerkt natuurlijk.
ELIZABETH ANKJA VAJAGIC: I've recorded
in the winter of 2003 and before that I recorded basically all
the songs on a four track, all the main guitars and some of the
textures, the melodies and structure. And when I did go into
the studio I had a pretty good idea of where the songs would
go and what layers of texture and colours they would have. And
then from there we just added all these beautiful instruments,
with great musicians.
En die gastmuzikanten, dat zijn er toch
wel van de crème de la crème van de Montréal-sien,
bijvoorbeeld toetsenist Efrim van Godspeed You Black Emperor
en A Silver Mt. Zion. Of Beckie Foon, de gitarist van die laatste
groep. En die drukten toch ook wel hun stempel op de plaat.
ELIZABETH ANKJA VAJAGIC: At the very beginning the songs were
based on simply guitar and voice. And from there, when I went
into the studio, we added things. But it's not that I had a clear
idea of what melodies exactly I wanted the cello to do or notes
I wanted the piano to do. It's more that I had the atmosphere
for each song. I knew where the songs had to go and from there
there was a lot of flexibility.
En met dat prachtige resultaat dus! Zoals
we dat gewend zijn van al die Constellation-groepen trouwens.
Neem nu de song Around here: hoe is ze daar tewerk
gegaan?
ELIZABETH ANKJA VAJAGIC: I just took
the guitar and a slide and I sort of created sounds around the
chords. And then I added a third guitar layer with the bowed
guitar. It's so bare and so sparse, there's a lot of space in
between sounds. And when I have all three or four tracks together
it sounds all together. Then I brought that into the actual recording
studio and it weren't necessarily exactly the same sounds, but
it was the same atmosphere. And in the studio we added saw. And
then I added this little baby piano at the end of the song, it's
an actual baby piano that I found somewhere and just added it
at the end of the song. Yeah, it's a very, very simple song.
artiest: ELIZABETH ANKA VAJAGIC
song: Around here
cd: Stand with the stillness of this day
label/referentie: Constellation/Bang/CST028
Around here uit
Stand with the stillness of this day van Elizabeth Anka
Vajagic. Op de hoes staat een griezelige foto van een soort madonnabeeldje.
En op de achterkant de ruïnes van een kerk. Het ziet er
allemaal nogal religieus uit, als je 't ons vraagt.
ELIZABETH ANKJA VAJAGIC: I had to come up with an image for
the cover and I wasn't sure what I wanted to put there. I had
an idea: of course I wanted the image to represent the music.
I don't think the religious facet of the cover necessarily represents
the music. I just wanted something that was motionless in a way,
but that had a background, a life to it or something. And I was
running out of time and I just went into the cemetery and I took
many, many pictures. And the ones on the cover felt right.
Een pokdalig beeldje op een kerkhof er
zijn vrolijkere covers te bedenken. Maar het klopt, het past
bij de muziek, die is ook niet echt euh, opgetogen.
ELIZABETH ANKJA VAJAGIC: In general
life things are not always the same and constant. You have these
moments of sudden bursts. It's not the most cheerful gathering
of songs, that's for sure. But that's how they are. They must
say something about me, but I'm not sure what they do say. I
think sadness is a very common and normal feeling, the same as
happiness. Somehow, I don't quite understand why, but sadness
can be easier or more direct to interpret in music or any kind
of creation. And I'm not sure if it is exactly sadness, it could
be some kind of a confused emotion or something. But at the same
time not all songs are sad. For me "Stand with the stillness
of this day" is not sad at all.
En dan heeft ze het niet over de hele
cd, maar over de song And the sky lay still, waarin ze
inderdaad zingt "stand with the stillness of this day".
Laat even vallen wat je vast hebt en luister, dan voel je
misschien wat ze bedoelt.
ELIZABETH ANKJA VAJAGIC: It's literally
what it says: it's to stand the stillness of this day; it's to
grasp the moment. Just stay there as if you where stopping everything
that's happening around you and just taking the time to breathe
basically. It could translate to anything. It could be taking
a walk on the street and just feeling what's happening and being
in that moment. Or at any point just to stand there taking the
day to give the moment some stillness, so you could see what's
happening and not constantly go go and walk into everything you're
doing. Just stop for a second.
artiest: ELIZABETH ANKA VAJAGIC
song: And the sky lay still
cd: Stand with the stillness of this day
label/referentie: Constellation/Bang/CST028
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