July 14th, 2009 HJGHER
On a recent trip to London, we were greeted by pianos all over. Some whispered silently in a park, some cried under the infamous drizzle but most made us passers-by listen and bear witness in awestruck wonder. From Tchaikovsky to The Beatles to Ten Little Indians, the crisp summer air was filled with music at every turn on the streets. A rare sight it was, for cold Londoners to slow their pace, listen for a while, and cheer for the playing strangers.
We later found out it was a project by Luke Jerram, who installed 30 old, unwanted pianos all over the city, “to get people talking to one another and to claim ownership and activate the public space”.
Street pianos are appearing in cities across the world. Located in skate parks, industrial estates, laundrettes, precincts, bus shelters and train stations, outside pubs and football grounds, the pianos are for any member of the public to enjoy and claim ownership of. Who plays them and how long they remain is up to each community. The pianos act as sculptural, musical, blank canvas’s that become a reflection of the communities they are embedded into. Many pianos are personalised and decorated.
Our friend Msxi had her take on Chopin by the Millennium Bridge.
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July 2nd, 2009 HJGHER
With hard electro influences from Boys Noize, Teenage Bad Girl and Digitalism to uplifting trance from Above & Beyond and Gareth Emery, DJ Phay, a former classical cellist and self-taught boy wonder debuted his live set for a HJGHER party, in conjunction with VUTOPIA at Velvet Underground, alongside Zouk resident, DJ Hong.
For all of you who have been requesting for DJ Phay’s next performance, do sign up here and we’ll be sure to keep you informed. In the meantime, you can always listen to his mix here.
DJ Phay is under H/Recordings, the music label of HJGHER.
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July 1st, 2009 HJGHER
At a HJGHER party, we introduced a short story installation, “And she melts in visions of eternal day”, written and produced by us here at HJGHER.
Taking our cue from the cinematic experience of the 1940s, we wanted our audience to experience a live performance instead of simply watching a movie on screen. We had a narrator read the entire script while a live cellist accompanied her on set as she read along. The audience was treated to a projection of still images shot by Jovian Lim (Oats & Sparkle).
Jovian was given free reign to interpret the story as he envisioned it should be in his head, but what made this all the more interesting was that we did this in collaboration with Club21’s BLACKJACK. We picked out clothes from the BLACKJACK store that we felt would bring represent different acts of the story and Jovian shot it in his signature style.
“And she melts in visions of eternal day” will be published for the first time in conjunction with the launch of UNDERSCORE N°1: THE ___ ISSUE magazine.
All images shot by Jovian will be made ready for viewing on the Underscore website soon. Stay tuned.
Posted in Art, Blink, Film, Hjgher | No Comments »