Camera Obscura es un grupo indie de Glasgow, Escocia, formado en 1996 por Tracyanne Campbell, John Henderson, y Gavin Dunbar. En septiembre de 2005, la banda empezó a grabar su nuevo álbum que se llamaría Let's Get Out of This Country ("Salgamos de este país"), con el productor sueco Jari Haapalainen. Este álbum salió al mercado el 6 de junio de 2006. El primer single extraído del disco es un tributo a Lloyd Cole y se llama Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken ("Lloyd, estoy preparada para que me rompan el corazón").

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="314" caption="Tracyanne Campbell - Camera Obscura"][[/caption] 

I'm in love with Tracyanne Campbell. Her voice is divine and she's classy retro. Nobody knows who she is either, therefore it's still cool to love her so. Tracyanne is lead singer of Camera Obscura. She listens to a walkman - you know, with audio cassettes. She's Scottish. What more do you want?

Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken - Camera Obscura

 Camera obscura Roberta Mosbergera (Węgry) - jak dla mnie jedno z ciekawszych przedstawień tegorocznego festiwalu. Została przedstawiona zasada działania aparatu fotograficznego, wykonano także zdjęcie, które na miejscu wywołano (negatyw). Dla pokolenia wychowanego na cyfrówkach musiała być to magia... albo raczej jakaś nudna staroć (choć dzieciaki się czynnie angażowały w wywoływanie i płukanie). Podziwiam autorów (bardzo sympatyczni z resztą) - do opowiedzenia niezbyt logiczne zjawiska (dla przeciętnego Polaka) i bariera językowa (jednak masa polaków ani be [bi:], ani me [mi:] - dzieci tłumaczyły rodzicom). Mimo wszystko fajnie było posiedzieć przez kilka minut we wnętrzu wielkiego aparatu fotograficznego (zaciemniony namiot z otworkiem i ekranem w środku).

Thirteen bands over ten hours for eighteen quids is not a bad return – although not according to one woman who threw a wobbly at the gate when told the price. Did she just fall through a crack in the space-time continuum from 1974 or something? Proceedings were kicked off by the Sparkling Shadazz who mocked the leaden skies with a great set of surf-beat instrumentals straight out of the Dick Dale school. Although all the songs sounded like they could have beamed in from 1963, the only one I recognised as a definite cover was “The Munsters” theme. They were great, although I thought they would have been better off playing a bit later when people's reserve had worn off a bit. They definitely get my prize for the most ironic band in the UK – a surf combo from Glasgow!

Pictish Trail is one of the Fence Collective and was accompanied by others like King Creosote. It was a set fairly typical of the collective's collective folkish-pop. He seems to be the only member to eschew face-fuzz, though. Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock-Pickers are a spin-off of Glasgow semi-legends Uncle John and Whitelock. They reminded me of those Ron Johnson type bands that Peel used to play in the late eighties – a bit Dave Howard Singers, a bit Shock Headed Peters too. They were OK.

European Union are alt-rock refugees from the era when Dinosaur Jr ruled the earth. They opened proceedings indoors, before the horror that was Stevie Jackson (from Belle and Sebastian) did his thing outside. I've always had an allergic reaction to B&S's winsome wimp-pop, and I lasted two songs of Jackson's set before going into an insulin-shock through a surfeit of sugar. The first sounded like something Brian Cant would sing on Playschool, and the second was full of references to rhyming Parisians (Juliet Greco / Victor Hugo – please make him stop!)

As palate cleansers go, the Gummy Stumps couldn't have been better. A guitar/drums/vocals trio, they sound like a cross between the Fall and Lightning Bolt. Actually, they don't really sound like anyone. The vocals are bellowed out in a seldom-wavering monotone, whilst the drums thunder and Rob-from-Park Attack twists some pretty amazing noise from his abused guitar. Noisy shouty punk is easy to do – noisy shouty punk that sounds like nothing on earth is a lot harder. Probably my band of the day.

Foxface are like a parallel universe Sons and Daughters who had been brought up on Dick Gaughan rather than Johnny Cash. They share a penchant for fierce pop tunes, but have a folky side. Indeed, I think it's their slower tunes that are the more effective. They are a great live band, although they seemed to suffer from some equipment problems that led to a bit of a stop-start set that didn't flow as it should. The Week That Was and School of Language were both fairly mainstream indie acts which went in one ear and out the other to the extent that I remember little about either.

Hamburg's Felix Kubin is an oddball – a chain-smoking geek dressed like a 1970s catalogue model, he was cursed with a wonky synth that made some of his off-kilter technopop sound even more bizarre. His music has hints of Yello and DAF: at times quirky, but at times going into full-on Tresor techno mode. He was followed by Plaaydoh. My friend pulled a face like she'd just swallowed a lemon, but I thoroughly enjoyed them. Their thrashy, dada-ist pop sounds like the Ting Tings jamming with Melt-Banana. Shambolic, shouty, simplistic, but a whole bundle of fun. Their mash-up of Springsteen's “Born To Run” was plain mental. But in a good way.

John B McKenna's singer-songwriter stuff was ill-suited to the hour he was on, and few were inclined to listen. Headliners Camera Obscura closed out the festival with a set that was shortened due to the whole thing over-running. By the time they came on, temperatures had plunged, as had most people's energy levels. Both times I've seen them previously was in brilliant sunshine – something they are perfectly suited to. Cold gloom is not really their ideal environment. Even so, they managed to lift the spirits of the (somewhat depleted) crowd with a selection of tunes old and new. They are a great pop band, with the same ear for a tune as the Delgados had, but with a much more upbeat and optimistic air.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I think that both the weather and the general standard of the music was an improvement on last year. Maybe next year's will be lucky enough to coincide with Glasgow's seven-day summer.

Another great band from Sweden, Bear Quartet is a indie rock group who is playing since 1989. They have some curiosities: the band always had 5 members (the bear quartet was taken from a swedish novel); all theirs albuns follow the same name scheme (every title has 2 words and the first one ends with an "y"); they are the most critical acclaimed band in sweden but they aren't heavy sellers; Jari Haapalainen, the lead guitar player, has produced a several bands in the last ten years including Camera Obscura and The Concretes. They promise a new album this year.

mp3>> Ask me don't axe me

Aquí vengo a hablarles del de Roskilde, cerca del pueblo de Roskilde en Dinamarca, siendo este el más importante de Escandinavia. Porque este en especifico, porqué hace justamente un año asistí a ék y justo esta semana arranca el warm up para el de este año, además nunca lo había reseñado.

La verdad no quiero ponerme a escribir algo muy largo, pero el año pasado este fue todo el cartel

Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Killers, Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Björk, My Chemical Romance, Queens of the Stone Age, The Who, The Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, Beastie Boys, Wilco, Mika, LCD Soundsystem, Basement Jaxx, In Flames, Klaxons, Justice, DJ Tiësto, Camera Obscura, John Legend, Mando Diao, Beirut, Peter Bjorn and John, The National, Cold War Kids, The Sounds, Machine Head, Jens Lekman, Talib Kweli, Against Me!, Tiësto, Mastodon, Cansei de Ser Sexy, New Young Pony Club, Eagles of Death Metal, Katatonia, Grizzly Bear, Dizzee Rascal, Spiritualized, Booka Shade, Datarock, Clipse, The Whitest Boy Alive, Strung Out, The Ark, The Thermals, Pelican, Diplo, Strike Anywhere, Laurent Garnier, Electrelane, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Tunng, Boris, Akron/Family, Goose, Bonde do Role, Anthony B, Matmos, Cult of Luna, Alpha Blondy, Annuals, Fanfare Ciocărlia, Luomo, Loney, Dear, Gojira, The Twilight Sad, Camille Jones, Holly Golightly, Julee Cruise, Thomas Dybdahl, Jeans Team, The Congos, Zyklon, BigBang, Hatesphere, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Buffalo Tom, Hayseed Dixie, Mikkel Metal, Volbeat, 120 Days, Djuma Soundsystem, Digital Mystikz, Nortec Collective, Mahmoud Ahmed, Loefah, Detektivbyrån, Slaraffenland, Roky Erickson, Nephew, K'naan, Dúné, People Press Play, Moi Caprice, Oh No Ono, The Kissaway Trail, Asle, AGF, Quit Your Dayjob, Buraka Som Sistema, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Tenniscoats, Dusty, Kal, Pixel, The Lionheart Brothers, Kenneth Bager, Konono N°1, Lazee, Suspekt, The Floor Is Made Of Lava, Taxi taxi!, Kama Aina, Trost, Death by Kite, Turboweekend, Bjørn Svin, Ungdomskulen, Band Ane, Speaker Bite Me, Badun, The Psyke Project, The Broken Beats, Nostalgia 77 Octet, Mapei, Timbuktu & Damn!, Analogik, Gorilla Angreb, As in Rebekkamaria, Murder, Choir of Young Believers, atoi, Mani Spinx, Junkyard Productions, Rhonda Harris, Kasai Allstars, Jøden, Marybell Katastrophy, Alice Rose, Sort Stue, TRENTEMØLLER, Aronas, Kasper Spez, 1234, Forest & Crispian, Decorate. Decorate., DJ Click, Sonic Junior, Boys in a Band, Mike Sheridan, Kloak, The Downward Candidate, Highway Child, Soulsavers feat. Mark Lanegan, City-X, Nikaido Kazumi, Transmission Low, Poeten & Lillebror, DJ Diplo, Dream of an Opium Eater, Ben Nott, Mit Nye Band, Nils m/skils, K´naan, Decorate, mikael palner, The Musicians of the Nile

160 bandas, con 4 días de warm up donde se presentaban bandas pequeñas y para luego 4 días de festival con 7 tarimas. Pude ver un total de 21 bandas de las que puedo resaltar las actuaciones de Jens Lekman con un concierto muy intimo entre el y su banda de mujeres. Anika Trost donde arranco que la entre a ver ya sus últimas 3 canciones y la primera que vi, ella montada en el borde de un amplificador colgando del cable del micrófono, presentación un tanto demente, pero una excelente sorpresa. Björk quien era la que mas me interesaba ver en el festival. Muse que a la postre fue para mi la mejor presentación. Queens Of Stone Age quienes descargaron con todo. Flamings y Beastie Boys con shows muy divertidos. Ademas de Detektivbyrân como una de las mas gratas sorpresas. La decepcionante presentación de Red Hot Chilli Peppers, incluso mucho mas que la de Caracas. Lastima que no pude ver Peter Björn and John y Klaxons por culpa de que se presentaban a la misma hora de Queens Of Stone Age y Beastie Boys respectivamente y The Killers que no los vi porque ya estaba hasta el guevo de la lluvia.

En contra tuvo la lluvia que no paró en 4 días, casi literalmente se puede decir que los dioses decidieron mear en Dinamarca mientras estabamos allí, gracias a ello perdimos 2 carpas y se nos mojó toda la ropa, mas toda la roncha que eso nos hizo pasar y además acalanbró mis pies y los lleno de marcas y heridas que todavía luego de un año tengo marcadas. Sin embargo la excelente vibra que se vivía en el sitio, la cantidad de gente desconocida con la que uno compartía, el alcohol y la música, hacía que todo se olvidara y lo convertian en una expericia increible e irrepetible, inclusive por las bandas que uno no conoce y descubre.

Este año el cartel es un poco más flojo, aunque hay varias cosas interesantes de ver

Radiohead, The Chemical Brothers, Goldfrapp, Cat Power, Gnarls Barkley, Neil Young, Jay-Z, Kings of Leon, Mogwai, The Streets, Slayer, José González, Hot Chip, Bullet for My Valentine, M.I.A., Judas Priest, My Bloody Valentine, CocoRosie, Band of Horses, Kate Nash, Anti-Flag, The Gossip, Lupe Fiasco, The Notwist, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Digitalism, MGMT, Robyn, Battles, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Duffy, Tokyo Police Club, The Raveonettes, Liars, Fedde le Grand, The Ting Tings, Enter Shikari, At the Gates, Orishas, The Hellacopters, Girl Talk, Efterklang, Solomon Burke, Shantel, Black Mountain, Clutch, Job for a Cowboy, Santogold, Alphabeat, Grinderman, Culcha Candela, Teitur, Yeasayer, Slagsmålsklubben, The Duke Spirit, Swollen Members, Lykke Li, Holy Fuck, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Joan as Police Woman, bob hund, Skream, Dan Deacon, No Age, Motorpsycho, Familjen, AaRON, Fuck Buttons, Mugison, Dengue Fever, Lady Saw, Rotten Sound, Raunchy, Cadence Weapon, Von Hertzen Brothers, Supersilent, The Dø, VETO, La Kinky Beat, Seasick Steve, Shackleton, Polarkreis 18, The Fashion, Static, Jay Reatard, Spleen United, Tina Dickow, The Black Seeds, Various Production, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Säkert!, Tone, DJ Disse, DJ Scotch Egg, Orquestra Imperial, L.O.C., Press Play on Tape, Frisco, Miss Platnum, Queen Ifrica, Canon Blue, August, Burhan G, Jomi Massage, Vieux Farka Touré, Rumskib, Extra Golden, Juan Formell y los Van Van, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, OVe-NaXx, The Count & Sinden, Vira, L.O.C, Wagner Pá, 18th Dye, Choir of Young Believers, when saints go machine, The Shape Of Broad Minds, Lulu Rouge, Bloodgroup, Tumi and the Volume, Babylove & The Van Dangos, Rumble in Rhodos, dunkelbunt, Krusseldorf, Various productions, Maruosa, Nicole Atkins & The Sea, beta satan, Erik Levander, Noize, A Kid Hereafter, Boy Better Know, Pilgrimz, August Engkilde, Sleep with all your friends, The Campbell Brothers, La Shica, Ian Ion, isam b, Majors, Boom Clap Bachelors, albertslund terror korps, Jong Pang, The Grand, Kiss Kiss Kiss, Frédéric Galliano, Valravn, BadboE, Henrik Hall, loungeclash, Awadi, kirsten ketsjer, [dunkelbunt], Maria Timm, Casiokids, Spokfrevo Orquestra, FredNukes, Bogulta, Mamar Kassey, Fanfara Tirana, Klaus Lynggaard, Troels Boberg, Kenge Kenge, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, BeardyMan, Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band, The Late Parade, Lucy Love, The Good the Bad, ricoloop, A Kid Hereafter In The Grinding Light, Riffelsyndikatet, The River Phoenix, yoke & yohs, Le Fiasko, The Brazierlights In The Window, Dj Banel, Sidi Goma, Dee Pee, MARIA & METAMMIT, Dub Tractor & Opiate, T.S. Høeg, Tivolis Symfoniorkester, The Freudian Slip, Peter Laugesen, Lars Frost, Job For A Cowboy , Shantel & Bucovina Club Orkester, MC Jabber, Thomas Boberg, Osaka Invasion

Aquí les pongo algunos video de año pasado

Björk - Army Of Me

Muse - Stockholm Syndrome

Queens Of Stone Age - Sick Sick Sick

Flaming Lips - Intro con Wayne Coyne haciendo crowd surfing dentro de una bola.

Artic Monkeys - Mardy Bum

The Who - Pinball Wizard

Y para que vean la cantidad de agua que se acumulo en el sitio

Lastima que no tenía la camara en mano cuando vi el tractor medio hundido en el barro.

A Triple-Header Celebrates Art Of Light
New Haven Independent - CT, USA
His eye-bending work in optics and in the ancient technique of camera obscura, which he renders anew, are featured in an exhibition at Yale University Art ...

This exhibit really focuses on the photographic method, not just the subject matter the artists have tried to capture. All of the artists shown have very different statements to make, and are in different parts of their career, which I think is always fun since as an audience I'm not seeing work done by everyone in the graduating class or work done by a group of people at the end of their career. You get to see the artists' on different parts of their path, and compare the different paths each photographer is taking/has taken in their exploration of light.

Corbis siūlo atsispausdinti fotoaparato išklotinę ir tapti pinhole fanų armijos nariu. Failus nusikrauti galima ČIA>

Dar vienas popierinis fotoaparatas, Nikon'o konkurentas :) - Dirkon'as (nuo žodžio "dirka" - skylutė).  Dirkon'o išklotinė spausdinimui  - ČIA>

Thomas Hudson Reeve pasakoja apie pinhole kameras, kurias jis daro tiesiog iš fotopopieriaus - taigi fotoaparatas fotografuoja tiesiai į save... Daugiau apie tai ir vaizdų galerija - ČIA>

Lomo Sharan popierinė kamera - ČIA>

Ir visi šitie fotoaparatai veikia - atspausdini, iškerpi, suklijuoji ir fotografuoji!

Na o jeigu tiesiog reikia mielo fotosuvenyro - imi ir susilankstai popierinį fotoaparatą origamį. Nebūtina to daryti iš kupiūros... bet ir iš paprasto popieriaus, atrodo, niekam nepavyksta jo padaryti...

Ką gi, jei ne fotoaparatą, tai bent jau rėmelį fotografijai pabandom išlankstyti:

I must write briefly here, but highly recommended is artist David Hockney's Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters. I've had it for a few months as part of my investigation into Spinoza and lenses, but only today did I enter it. It enters like a film. First, it is a gorgeous book, filled which large format, glossy copies and enlarged details of some of the greatest painted images in Western History, (at a fairly inexpensive price). Second, is just the investigative and painterly-minded search that Hockney conducts. Apart from its value as a historical thesis (is it correct or not?), the simple following of an intuition and visual perspicuity across the centuries is invigorating in the most mental of senses. One sees through the track-finding eyes of a man who stakes his claim as a seer of images. But thirdly, and most importantly, is the intrusion of the lens and mirror upon the growing rational scene of Dutch thinking and art. Hockney documents a literal refiguration of space, the construction of new internal and aesthetic relations sprung up from the capacities of a found realist, representational technique. Not only are the possible technes of detail capture outlined and exhibited, but these technical discoveries are nuanced by Hockney to the degree that the restrictions and distortions that accompany the machine of a lens and mirror are made evident. As a space and figuration evolved, it was no longer simply a matter of capture or exactness, in expression, but the artist at that time had to synthesize his vision to his lens/mirror, synergistically, along with the newly imposed compositional restraints. The lens/mirror became a part of the eye-hand-brush-palette-easel-model-light source assemblage, creating a recursive event. As such there was, if Hockney is correct, such profusion of lens and mirror in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, especially within the field of craft and aesthetic, one really cannot underplay the relation between these devices (and their compositional, experiential characteristics) and the philosophical conceptions of representation and perception that were one the rise. To represent was to focus.

Details of the Hockney-Falco Thesis can be found here, and wiki. Also Philip Steadman's optical study of Vermeer Vermeer's Camera, is painstakingly accurate and of very good use. Perhaps, for me, a conclusion will follow as to how this lens/mirror relation to aesthetic production helped shape the ideas of Spinoza, the lens-maker.

Ever Wonder How Space Could Be So Stablized by Detail, But Still Could Wobble?

The mix of a angry face and a sweet voice defines the style of Tracyanne Campbell, the Camera Obscura main singer. That's one of the things that i love in that Scotish band who wants to get out of this country, because everything is boring here. The band went to Sweden this year to record his new album, with the colaboration of Björn Yttling from Peter, himself and John. They will not stop their concerts during this time, and you who lives in Europe will have the chance to see Camera alive.

Camera Obscura:

06-14 Murcia, Spain - Auditorio Victor Villegas
06-29 Glasgow, Scotland - Hey! You! Get Off My Pavement!
07-14 Bologna, Italy - JuLive 08
07-17 London, England - King's College
07-18 Shrewsbury, England - Buttermarket
07-19 Wolverhampton, England - Little Civic
07-20 Oxfordshire, England - Truck Festival
07-26 Badajoz, Spain - Contemporanea Festival
08-09 Leicester, England - Summer Sundae Festival
08-31 Argyll, Scotland - Hydro Connect Festival

Info: Pitchfork

mp3>> Let's Get Out of This Country

Jurgitos Žaromskytės nuotrauka. Ekspozicija 20min

Tomos Kaliubevičiūtės nuotrauka. Ekspozicija 25min

Martynos Šulskutės foto. Ekspozicija 17 min.

Dar kartą ačiū Kerniui Pauliukoniui. Nuotraukų originalai bus saugomi Vienofoto studijoje, Vienožinskio Dailės Mokykloje.

Para masi detalhes: http://www.xlounge.com/neverwas/neverwas_proposal.html

PRADŽIA.

Joks darbas negali prasidėti atitinkamai jam nepasiruošus. Todėl pradžioje išvardinsiu svetaines, kurios man padėjo šiam darbui pasiruošti. Tiksliau pateiksiu jų nuorodas:
1. Pinhole fotografija;
2. homemade matchbox pinhole camera;
3. homemade matchbox pinhole camera shutter;
4. matchbox camera (video);
5. Pinhole fotoaparatas PINQ-135 savomis rankomis.

Na, o dabar nuotrauka to, ką naudojau aš:

Atsiprašau, kad nuotraukos bus ne tokios ryškios, bet kadangi labai myliu juostas, tai skaitmeninio fotoaparato kaip ir neturiu.

PROCESAS

Visas darbas prasideda nuo degtukų dėžutės. Reikia iškirpti dvi skylutes. Kaip matote iš žemiau pateiktos nuotraukos, išorinė skylutė yra labai maža, jinai didelės reikšmės nevaidins, kadangi ant jos klijuosim folijos gabaliuką, su dar mažesne skylute, sakyčiau, kokius dešimt kartų mažesne skylute. Vidinė skylutė daroma didesnė, mano apskaičiavimais, bent jau pas mane jinai išėjo kažkur du trečdaliai viso vidaus ploto, gal ir šiek tiek mažesnė, nors abejoju, ar pavyks užimti visą tą plotą.

Be visa ko, reikėtų tiek vidinė dalį, tiek išorinę nuspalvinti juodu marker'iu, arba apklijuoti juoda izoliacine juosta, kad nepatektų ant juostos šviesą.

Toliau darbas vyksta su folija. Jinai labai svarbi dalelė visame gamybos procese. Žinoma, geriau naudoti skardinės gabaliuką, bet jei jo nėra, tiks ir paprasta metalinė folija, namie jos tikrai galima rasti. Jinai gali būti šiek tiek sulamdyta, todėl patarčiau su kokiu lygiu paviršiumi ją ištiesint, tuomet dedame ant kartono ir darome su adata skylutę. Nebūtina durti taip, kad adata visa praeitų pro foliją. Užtenka ir to, kad pajusite, jog adata susidūrė su kartonu. Tuomet tą skylutę palyginam su iš mamos ar panelės pavogtom dildėm nagams. Jos, žinoma, turi būti labai švelnios, nes kitu atveju suplešyte foliją.

Foliją reikia su izoliacija priklijuoti prie mažesnes prieš tai padarytos skylutės. Pasistenkite klijuoti taip, kad su adata padaryta skylutė būtų lygiai per centrą.

Gerai priklijavus foliją reikia pereiti prie kito svarbaus dalyko, taip vadinamo shutter'io. Jis svarbus tuo, kad, jeigu viską prieš tai padarėt teisingai, reiškia, per tą folijos skylutę šviesa patenka ant jūsų foto juostelės. Iš vienos pusės tai yra labai gerai, kadangi kol kas viskas veikia. Iš kitos pusės, tikiu, kad norėsite, kad išeitų ir kokios nors nuotraukos, o tam reikia kokio nors užrakto, kuris po tam tikro laiko neleistų šviesai patekti ant juostelės ir ant juostelės liktų koks nors paveikslėlis. Aš dėl viso pikti dar nudažiau savo shutter'į juodai.

SURINKIMAS

Padarius shutter'į, belieka tik viską surinkti, o tam mums prireiks dar ir dviejų kasečių, viena turi būti su juostele, kita tuščia, arba kitoje turi būti išsikišęs juostelės gabaliukas, kad vieną galėtume pritvirtinti prie kitos.

Su tuščia kasete man labai pasisekė, teta padovanojo dvi tuščias rusiškas foto juostos kasetes. O juos ypatingos tuo, kad seniau juostelės prie kasetės buvo tvirtinamos klijais arba tiesiog izoliacija, bei jos gana paprastas išsirenka.

Tolesnėse nuotraukose matysite visus mano atliktus veiksmus surinkinėjant aparatą. Svarbu pažymėt tai, kad viską surinkus reikėtų dar užklijuoti visas skyles, kurios matosi plika akimi, na, ir kitas įtartinas vietas irgi vertėtų kaip nors užklijuoti.

Pabaigoje beliko pasidaryti kadrų persukimo mechanizmą. Aš tam panaudojau degtukus, neišmesi juk. Žinoma, jūs galite naudoti ką tik norite, viskas priklauso tik nuo jūsų vaizduotės.

Ir galutinis rezultatas:

Patarimai:
Vertėtų nepamiršti, kad viskas priklauso nuo jūsų pačių ir čia pateikta informacija gali būti netiksli arba net nesuprantama. Internete galima rasti labai daug įvairių pavyzdžių, kaip galima pasigaminti pinhole. Nenusiminkite, jei pirmoje juostelėje nesigaus nei viena nuotrauka, eksperimentavimams ir geriems rezultatams kartais reikia ir 10000 kadrų. Galų gale, tai geras būdas praleisti laisvalaikį. Todėl atostogaukit, šypsokitės, gaudykit džiugias akimirkas ir fotografuokite, daug daug daug. Ir geriau tai darykit su juostele, o ne skaitmeniniu fotoaparatu.

För er som inte vet vad en Camera Obscura är, kan jag berätta att principen är ganska enkel. Du har ett rum som är ateljén varvid en lins är fäst i väggen och på andra sidan linsen ett annat rum som är mörkt varpå hela ateljén projiceras som en bild i det mörka rummet. Fram med en duk, rita av och du har din komposition nästintill perfekt på duken.

Den finns givetvis i andra utföranden, bärbara t o m, men principen är också namnet. Camera Obscura betyder "mörkt rum".

Vad jag kan tycka är konstigt är dock att det pratas i termer såsom att detta skulle vara en förbluffande upptäckt. Vad jag numer förstår så har man alltid vetat om det här. Är man konsthistoriker så kan man väl knappast ha undgått en så pass vital del i måleriet? Som att skriva Elvis Presleys biografi och inte veta att denne gick på droger. Och den har tydligen nämnts i flertalet konstskrifter frekvent genom hela konsthistorien, så att den nämns som ett avslöjande tycker jag nog är lite märkligt.
Nåväl, vad som är intressant är dock frågeställningen om huruvida det är fusk eller inte. De holländska mästarna uppskattade Camera Obscuran och hyllade den snarare än bortförklarade den. Man kunde fokusera helt och hållet på det väsentliga i det man målar, och återigen - om den fanns till hands för alla, varför finns det bara en Rembrandt och inte tio, eller hundra?
Därför, att en duktig bildskapare kan arrangera och komponera bra bilder. Man ska inte för en sekund tro att en skicklig bildskapare är som arkitekten, som via matematik kan räkna ut perfekta perspektiv. Visserligen och - givetvis - har en duktig konstnär förmågan att teckna och göra skickligt utförda skisser och teckningar, men skickligheten hos en bildskapare slutar inte vid den talangen, snarare börjar.

Jag måste erkänna att jag tidigare varit väldigt kritisk till det här "fusket" så här i efterhand, men jag inser faktiskt nu att det finns en viss kärna i genuint konstnärsskap, som återfinns hos Caravaggio, Rembrandt och Velazquez m.m, som inte befläckas av användandet. Ingen människa förutom Rembrandt kunde göra en Nightwatch, trots att alla hade tillgång till Camera Obscuran.

One of my favorite jobs was teaching art to Jr. High age students in a summer KEY Camp held at Casper College in Casper, Wyoming. KEY= Knowledge through Excellence for Youth. I taught ceramics, “Earth, Water and Fire” and taught some general art classes; things like “Make Art with the Masters” and about structure. My favorite though was the photography class.

The job came with a bunch of old automatic cameras. They constantly malfunctioned. The budget allotted a roll of film to each student, each day. A local developer processed the film each night. I tried to pick a different type of site each day. I showed them easy ways to do some trick photography, with these simple cameras. But, basically, I felt like I did not teach them much of use and cringed at the waste of film.

There were three, one-week sessions each summer. I had five days to make a difference. It was hectic, with a short time on the first Sunday to set up your classroom before you went to the hall for introductions to the parents and students. Friday night was time to put up a display of their work and Saturday, was photo day, time to watch the play they put on and oversee student’s pick-up of their work.

When I changed the class from photography, to “Chemistry of Photography,” I felt like I really reached the kids. I brought my enlarger, safe lights, and developing equipment and covered the windows of my assigned room with black plastic.

Monday, I met my students outside my Camera Obscura room.

Walking into a dark room was cool. They loved sending their friends outside, to marvel at the fact that they were upside down on our paper (the opposite wall was cabinets, so not conducive to the image). They saw that the aperture size and distance blurred and sharpened the image. We did exposure tests on 8x10 print paper, which I developed to show them how it was done. We finished up with each student taking a sheet of print paper and exposing it for the amount of time they decided on.  They developed and fixed their own pictures.

They learned about aperture, exposure and developing. I kept folders for each student, so at the end of the week, they had handouts and their work to take home.

One thing I found out during the years that I have taught various classes is that I, as the teacher, take home as much from a class as I put into it.

Zu den ältesten Kenntnissen aus der Vorgeschichte der Photographie zählt das Prinzip der Lochkamera, besser bekannt als Camera Obscura. Schon Aristoteles wusste, dass, wenn ein Lichtstrahl durch eine kleine Öffnung von außen in einen völlig abgedunkelten Raum fällt, man auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite genau das klar und deutlich sieht, was sich draußen befindet. Nur eben auf den Kopf gestellt. Erst Leonardo da Vinci schuf die Voraussetzungen dafür, dass dieses Prinzip auch praktisch angewendet werden konnte. Dies war in der Zeit von 1490 – 1492, doch leider schrieb Leonardo da Vinci alle seine Aufzeichnungen in einer Art Spiegelschrift, die erst Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts entschlüsselt werden konnte, Somit blieb seine Enddeckung bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt ohne Folgen. Glücklicherweise beschäftigten sich auch andere Gelehrte wie G. della Porta oder Johannes Kepler mit dieser Erscheinung.

Anfangs war die Camera Obscura eine abgedunkelte, begehbare Kammer mit einem Loch in der Außenwand. Diese diente Künstlern als Zeichenhilfe. Im Laufe der Zeit wurde sie dann kleiner. Man konstruierte kastenförmige, mit Linsen versehene Apparate, in denen Umkehrspiegel angebracht waren. Diese lenkten die Bilder auf die Glasplatte die sich an der Oberseite des Kastens befand und von dort konnte der Zeichner dann das Bild abpausen. Gezeichnet wurde in der Regel auf transparent gemachtem Papier.

Zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts hatte die Optik alle wesentlichen Voraussetzungen geschaffen, damit mehr und mehr das Herstellen geeigneter Glassorten und das Fassen der verschiedenen Linsenkombinationen in den Vordergrund rückten. Neben der Camera Obscura kamen nun auch einige andere optische Geräte zum Einsatz. Allen voran die Laterna Magica. Diese war im Prinzip ein Vorläufer des uns bekannten Dia-Projektors, man konnte damit ein transparentes Bild auf eine Wand projizieren, nur wurden die Bilder für die Laterna Magica gemalt. Später wurden auch Glasbilder benützt. Weil das sich emanzipierende Bürgertum einen immer größeren Bildbedarf hatte, wurden auch Silhouetten immer populärer: man zeichnete nur einen Schatten nach und schnitt ihn dann aus.

Dies erforderte kein großes Maß an zeichnerischem Vermögen, ebenso wenig wei das später entwickelte Physionotrace oder die Camera lucida. Alle diese optischen Hilfsmittel dienten im Grunde nur dazu billig und schnell Bilder zu produzieren. Besonder Portrais waren sehr gefragt. 

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Camera Obscura
Let's Get Out Of This Country ••••
Elefant

The habitual comparisons with fellow Scots Belle & Sebastian seem somewhat overstated when listening to this, the fourth full-length album from Glaswegian sextet Camera Obscura, fronted by Traceyanne Campbell (no relation to Isobel). Although there are occasional hints of the distinctive B&S indie-pop sound here and there, Let's Get Out Of This Country is so much more than imitation. In fact, the listener is treated, tour guide-style, to a veritable history of pop music.

There are moments of pure pop breeziness on first single and album opener ‘Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken', a song written in answer to the final track on Lloyd Cole's classic debut, Rattlesnakes, and again on the title track, where St Etienne's catchier sunshine moments are emulated well. Indeed, the witty lyrics and upbeat mood recall a female-fronted Divine Comedy covering Cole himself in his prime. However, the real beauty here lies in the lounge country sway elements of the album where the pace is slower and more bittersweet. ‘Dory Previn' and the French waltz of ‘The False Contender' are enchanting and have the wistful qualities of a last dance with their unhurried melodies and sophisticated folk-pop tenderness. We're transported to an abandoned, creaky back porch where timeless themes of longing and lost love are all encompassing.

Fittingly, everything goes back in time to the retro high school prom queen heartbreak of ‘Come Back Margaret'. With its clever doo-wop production that could quite believably have been recorded by Connie Francis, a saccharine tune right out of the ‘50s accompanies innocent lyrics of despair and teenage dramas. Further vintage melodies are explored with The Supremes-esque sound of ‘I Need All The Friends I Can Get', a full on charming disco number complete with hand claps and tambourines. In terms of emulating older styles, nothing quite tops ‘If Looks Could Kill', a song that lodges in your head and refuses to budge, cramming in everything that made those Phil Spector-produced Ronettes classics so great, right down to the glorious Wall of Sound and organ accompaniment.

It's a testament to Camera Obscura's songwriting talents that such a collection of retro styles can still sound so fresh and vibrant. Not content with simple pop sweetness, the band tackle sombre themes of broken relationships and lonely yearning for romance and love. The closing track, ‘Razzle Dazzle Rose', is a beautiful farewell that sounds like it was recorded in a deserted ballroom. Tracyanne's haunting Julee Cruise-like vocals perfectly express the ghostly atmosphere and a trumpet solo rounds up the magical history tour. Far from under-achievers, Camera Obscura sound like a band who have really hit their stride - not just unafraid to explore different eras and styles, but mastering each of them.

Stephanie Heney
originally published June 5th, 2006 

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Camille
Le Fil •••••
Virgin France

The word ‘chanteuse' is bandied around rather too often these days, but rarely does an artist fit the bill more perfectly than 27-year old Parisian Camille. Though she is arguably most famous for singing on Nouvelle Vague's self-titled album of bossa nova interpretations of New Wave classics, Le Fil is actually her second solo release. The title translates as ‘the thread', pointedly relating to the hum that flows constantly throughout the record, undulating beneath the complex and luscious vocal layering and melodies, creating a fluid and bound piece of art. Though the album is sung almost entirely in her native tongue, a few strands of English appear in some songs, but French speaking friends assure me that, though the lyrics are indeed wonderful, the allure of Le Fil lies in its complex and beautiful sound.

One of the album's most striking elements is the heavy dependence on a cappella arrangements. Conventional intruments have a limited presence, comprising mainly of bossa nova percussion and occasional horns and slap bass, but it is the diversity of Camille's vocal arrangements that make it so impressive. In particular, the richness and variety of her vocalisations on ‘Ta Douleur' are astounding and it's not hard to see why it was chosen as a single in France; as one of the most upbeat songs on the album, there is a wider berth for interesting noises - raspberries, squeals and squelches. Much like Tanya Tagaq's Sinaa, if it weren't for the 5" circular proof in your stereo, it would be hard to even entertain the thought that the human voice can make such sounds. On the slower songs (most notably ‘Vous'), the background ba-ba-bas and high-pitched vocals are reminiscent of the multi-layered and rich harmonies characteristic of Alisha's Attic.

But it's not just the voice parts that make Le Fil so spellbinding; the orchestral chord changes should not be underestimated, nor should Camille's clear understanding of how to write a moving piece of music. Opener ‘La Jeune Fille Aux Cheveux Blancs' is the most luscious composition of them all; the orchestration is as pure as a sunrise, unscathed by sin and cynicism. The chordal and melodic movements are so genuinely perfect they'll make the hairs on your neck stand to attention. On the flipside, Camille doesn't shy away from getting positively filthy, and ‘Janine III' is especially explicit; her rasping snarls are layered and looped, sounding for all the world like a group of bickering wrinkled women in a small-town market square. Le Fil often feels incredibly modern in the sense that the clarity and complexity of the vocals is fresh and original, but a folky, traditional Gallic slant is also at play. Some of the melodies possess such world-weary wisdom that they may well have been passed down from generation to generation of singers. Rather like a thread, in fact. Even disregarding the lyrics completely, Le Fil is one of the most astonishing musical works of recent years.

Robbie de Santos
originally published December 19th, 2005

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Isobel Cambpell & Mark Lanegan
Ballad Of The Broken Seas •••½
V2

Weird partnerships in music are no new phenomenon. Remember Bowie and Crosby? Cave and Minogue? So what about Campbell and Lanegan? With her Mia Farrow-type features and sugar-sweet fairytale tones, Campbell could seduce even the most hardened of music fans into listening enraptured. Since leaving Glaswegian pop collective Belle & Sebastian in 2002, she has recorded a number of albums under various guises and with Ballad Of The Broken Seas, Campbell once again shows her knack for choosing allies wisely.

Lanegan, the growly-voiced former Screaming Trees frontman and sometime guitarist with metal heavyweights Queens Of The Stone Age, makes for a somewhat odd collaborator but even more bizarrely, it works. In fact, Lanegan has never sounded quite so dirty and gruff as he does on the folksy opener 'Deus Ibi Est'. As his wicked tones slide against Campbell's soft, ethereal vocals you almost feel part of some kind of amoral liaison between them. Hell, even the artwork locates them in a seedy hotel room. Of course, it's all designed to play out in our heads - the pair of them have barely even been in the same room together, recording their respective vocals hundreds of miles apart.

Campbell is responsible for writing most of the songs, though Lanegan has a go with the alluring 'Revolver', a low-key number with sexily whispered vocals, steady percussion and delicate strings. The vocal contrast between the two is by far the most engaging aspect of the record. Some songs are designed to throw Isobel's ghostly innocence into sharp relief against her craggy companion. The old Hank Williams standard 'Ramblin' Man', for example, is a welcome inclusion, complete with a cracking whip and countrified guitars, while the title track sees Lanegan playing to type again, deliberating the ravages of drink. Less obvious are 'Black Mountain', which vaguely recalls a softened 'Scarborough Fair', and 'Saturday's Gone', a wistful haunting tune on which Campbell's vocals are truly laid bare.

Later songs, however, settle less well with Campbell's purity. '(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me's Lanegan-sung lyric "There's a crimson bird flying when I go down on you" highlights the fine line between seductive and creepy. Whatever effect she was hoping for when she enlisted Lanegan, Campbell has obviously done her homework well and has hit upon that rare quality, a tangible chemistry between two unusual voices, and the attraction is compelling. You expect Lanegan to be the lascivious devil on Campbell's celestial shoulder, but in fact the opposite also happens - Campbell's vocals often hide a sinister side, and that aspect alone is worth the price of admission.

Helen Ogden
originally published May 22nd, 2006 

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Isobel Campbell
Milkwhite Sheets •••½ 
V2

Once upon a time, in a mysterious and supernatural world far, far away, there lived a blonde girl with big eyes, a captivating smile and slightly wonky yet chic fringe. She lived high up in a tower overlooking a beautiful bay where the ocean was clear and the sand was golden. Life would have been good for her if her tower wasn't surrounded by shimmering mermaids who, every time a ship appeared on the horizon, would call and sing their tempting song, flicking their tails in delight as, one by one, the sailors within were called to their deaths. The blonde girl had to watch these handsome and brave men drown each time and, for each one, she would compose a lament, mourning the fact that another chance of true love was gone, borrowing harmonies from the ghosts that went before and melodies from the dreams of escape she held dear. If she ever did, she thought, she would wear deeply coloured velvet and spill glitter wherever she walked.

This, believe it or not, just about sums up what you should expect to hear on Miss Campbell's latest album. Confirming her rather offbeat romance with traditional folk, Milkwhite Sheets takes a tentative and seemingly innocent step away from her indie/country-rock former amalgamation, instead transforming into a magical creature whose fuzzy beauty is best caught in morning light. A meandering journey back to days of yore, the former Belle & Sebastian vocalist and cellist steps into a new spotlight of her own, a more ambient one to that of her Mercury Music Prize-nominated collaboration with Mark Lanegan, but bright nonetheless.

This is an album that teaches us to listen. Though it may at first seem like the slight, shy offerings of some whispering goddess sitting next to James Iha playing the lute, it soon becomes apparent that the almost pagan-like rituals found herein are making a much bolder statement. Indeed, the power in Campbell's music is that you have to really dig deep to notice what is there. Beginning with the lilting 'O' Love Is Teasin', Campbell's slightly unsure voice merges with desolate strumming, building up the tracks that follow, often dramatically, with haunting cello and wistful arpeggios to create something quite primeval and barely-there beautiful. From the reworked traditional offerings 'Willow's Song' and 'Hori Horo' to the contrasting indie menace of closing track 'Thursday's Child', Campbell's quiet exultations and the simple structure of what are essentially love songs makes Milkwhite Sheets extra special indeed. It is not afraid of doing something different, and like-minded people are therefore invited in to have their cockles warmed by this rawest of British talents.

Anna Claxton
previously unpublished

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Kate Campbell with Spooner Oldham
For The Living Of These Days ••••½
Large River

Like a fine vintage wine, Kate Campbell just gets better and better. Since the release of her debut album Songs From The Levee in 1995, she's mined the rich seams of folk, country, gospel, soul and blues in ever deeper and more fulfilling ways. Along with Iris DeMent and Lucinda Williams, Campbell has an ability to distil a variety of Southern music traditions into the space of a single song. Drawing deep from the well of tradition, she takes the music forward and infuses it with a resolutely contemporary sensibility.

Her new gospel album is a collaboration with veteran Spooner Oldham recorded at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Oldham has worked with Campbell on many of her previous records (including her first gospel release, Wandering Strange), but here it's just the two of them, resulting in an uncluttered approach that allows each of these fourteen songs to shine. The album combines ancient hymns with songs by Woody Guthrie and Kris Kristofferson and a couple of excellent Campbell-Oldham originals. Backed only by Oldham's stately Hammond B3 organ, piano, Wurlitzer and guitar, Campbell raids the Baptist hymnal for a lovely rendition of ‘There's A Wideness In God's Mercy', while ‘God Of Grace & God Of Glory' gets a particularly powerful and urgent treatment. And should anyone doubt the contemporary relevance of this material, just listen to the plea to "cure Thy children's warring madness" or the reference to being "rich in things and poor in soul" in the latter hymn. The beautiful ‘Prayer Of Thomas Merton' sets a Trappist monk's prayer to alternately aching and assertive piano accompaniment, while Campbell and Walt Aldridge's haunting ‘Dark Night Of The Soul' is a stunning centrepiece that sounds like an instant classic.

As ever, Campbell's compassionate, unaffected and effortlessly soulful vocals pull the listener into the heart of each song. Moreover, without ever resorting to facile polemic or easy didacticism, Campbell has always smuggled sharp-eyed social and political commentary into her work, and here she finds the vein of dissent and worldly dissatisfaction that links old hymns to contemporary protest songs. Both Guthrie's ‘Jesus Christ' and Bobby Braddock's pointed ‘Would They Love Him Down In Shreveport' reach disheartening conclusions about Jesus's probable reception in the contemporary world, while Kristofferson's ‘They Killed Him' despairs at humanity's tendency to dispose of its most valuable teachers. But, like all of the best country musicians, Campbell refuses to dwell in despondency for too long, and both the Civil Rights-themed ‘Faces In The Water' and the timeless ‘There Is A Balm In Gilead' offer hope and consolation. 

Ultimately, while For The Living of These Days may not top Campbell's last record, the sublimely affecting Blues & Lamentations, it deserves to take its place alongside DeMent's Lifeline and Johnny Cash's My Mother's Hymn Book as a stirring example of all that is good about American gospel music. If there's something missing from this record, it's the wonderful narrative sense, vivid character portraits and wry humour that have distinguished so much of Campbell's earlier work. Nonetheless, she and Oldham have produced that rarity - a contemporary album that can truly be said to be good for the soul. Amen!

Alex Ramon 
originally published October 14th, 2006

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Laura Cantrell
Humming By The Flowered Vine ••••½
Matador

Country music is a much maligned genre, and not without some justification. The gross excesses of the Nashville country scene are enough to turn the stomach of even the most hard-bitten music fan. However, for every Billy Bob Stetson or Dwayne Yokel with their tasselled shirts, ten-gallon hats and horrific mullet haircuts, there's been a Nanci Griffith, a Steve Earle, a Mary Chapin Carpenter or a Lucinda Williams who has been there to haul the genre rightly back from the ridiculous to the sublime. Laura Cantrell thankfully resides in this latter category. Indeed, she has received such widespread acclaim that many regard her as the rising star of the alt.country genre. Influential DJ John Peel proclaimed her debut album, Not The Tremblin' Kind his "favourite record of the last ten years, and possibly my life" and Elvis Costello quickly enlisted her as a support act and was quoted as saying "If Kitty Wells made Rubber Soul it would sound like Laura Cantrell." High praise indeed.

Humming By The Flowered Vine is Cantrell's third album and her first for large indie label Matador, in whose pastures she runs alongside some less than likely label-mates, including Cat Power, Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai and Guided By Voices, and is fearlessly brimming with the confidence of an artist who knows she's coming of age. Though her style is pure country, drawing on much of the language of the genre - slide and steel guitar, high third harmonies, traditional folk ballads, fiddle and accordion - Cantrell never allows these elements to add up to a cliché, but rather blends them successfully with a contemporary bent, though sometimes choosing one path or the other. Fittingly, this seems to reflect her life's journey. Having emigrated from Nashville to attend college in New York City, Cantrell kickstarted her long-running college radio show ‘Tennessee Border', which explores both the history of country and its diverse modern expressions, and learnt her trade playing in the city's trendy coffee bars alongside more folk-based artists. Remarkably, her first two albums were recorded while holding a full-time job in a Wall Street investment bank.

Without the day job devouring her time, Cantrell has turned in her finest album yet. The opener, ‘14th Street', commences proceedings with a light country-pop paean to her adopted hometown and features exquisite harmonies from Mary Lee Kortes of Mary Lee's Corvette. Second track, ‘What You Said', has tinges of bluegrass, with Kenny Kosek's fiddle and Jon Graboff's mandolin hinting at the breadth of styles to come. There's slow-burning rock ('Letters', an obscure Lucinda Williams original), post-war Western swing akin to the likes of Bob Willis & His Texas Playboys with pedal steel and fiddle aplenty (‘Wishful Thinking') and a traditional murder ballad from the 1920s (‘Poor Ellen Smith', also covered by the likes of Kristin Hersh). The pairing of ‘And Still' and ‘Khaki And Corduroy' packs some serious emotional weight, with the latter perhaps just nudging it for the album's most affecting contribution. Here, acoustic guitar and bass, brushes and sparse piano create a melancholy evocation of memories of lost times and old friends.

Elsewhere, ‘California Rose' is Cantrell's own tribute to Rose Maddox from the Depression-era group, Maddox Brothers & Rose. It's an unforgettable story of that indomitable spirit of a strong woman forging her way against the odds. The biggest surprise here comes with the closer, ‘Old Downtown', which fuses some pretty diverse styles into a delectable slab of modern country rock, as perfect as it is unexpected. It takes some imagination to mix early Steve Earle-style guitars with a heavily syncopated, almost Madchester drum and bass groove, and then to seamlessly segue to an outro of eBow guitars and pedal steel combining into a psychedelic, ambient soundscape. Oh, and all this comes complementary to classic Americana lyrical imagery. It's easy to see why Cantrell is seen as both curator and innovator within her chosen field.

Humming By The Flowered Vine neatly establishes Cantrell as a force to be reckoned with. The production by JD Foster, former bassist for Dwight Yoakam, brings out the best of Cantrell and her musicians, delivering an album of great sonic clarity. There's no filler here either; the disc spins for just 39 minutes, leaving the listener hungry for more rather than fully sated. With songs this strong and backed by a bigger label, Cantrell will almost certainly garner wider, more mainstream recognition and success. Here's hoping this propels her onto equal or greater achievements.

Trevor Raggatt
originally published October 20th, 2006

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Rachael Cantu
Run All Night •••½
Q-Division

This short but sweet eight-track mini-album may not make your ears prick up with its originality or variety, but it will undoubtedly tug at your heartstrings. Californian Cantu is a former rock chick now treading lightly in the footsteps of accomplished singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Ani DiFranco, but sounding a bit like Luscious Jackson's Gabby Glaser in the process. Taken at face value, Run All Night may simply be another pretty, wistful woman with a beautiful voice strumming an acoustic guitar, but once you've immersed yourself in it, you may find that Cantu's appeal lies in her music holding some kind of familiarity that the others do not.

Epitomising all that is human, Cantu's touchingly honest lullabies are performed with a subtle intensity that commands the attention of even the most unfeeling listener. The title track, for example, is about a moment we've all had that you just don't want to end; at risk of sounding clichéd, this is one album that you won't want to finish up either. In little under half an hour, and with a smidgen of help from her friends on cello and organ, Cantu wends her way through every emotion, oozing loneliness, regret and, of course, that ole devil called love, from every pore.

Run All Night may be minimalist in approach but it's extremely powerful when given a chance to take full effect and, although it's likely that she'll need to bring something completely different to the table next time if she's to go the distance, this is a confident debut that will surely get under your skin. It made me blub quietly anyway. Great stuff.

Anna Claxton 
originally published September 17th, 2006

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The Cardigans
Super Extra Gravity •••
Stockholm Records

Although The Cardigans' last album, Long Gone Before Daylight, was a dark gem of a record consisting mainly of bleak and distinctly ‘grown-up' lyrics set to acoustic pop tunes, commercially it was a relative dud. Whether this injustice knocked the confidence of Nina Persson and co. is unclear, but something has gone awry in between that record and this, their sixth in just over a decade.

Never one-dimensional, The Cardigans have always been a pop group with a slightly sinister side (after all, they are famously fans of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath), and that lyrical edge remains; opener ‘Losing A Friend' dwells upon mortality and sets a black-humoured tone. The trouble here is that the music is too often tortured as well; the sweet sound that used to set the band apart from their peers has dissipated almost entirely. Gone too is the icy electronic sheen of their Gran Turismo-era hits, ‘My Favourite Game' and ‘Erase/Rewind'. Instead, the band have opted for a more pedestrian pop-rock sound that proves somewhat unengaging over the length of the record.

That's not to say that this is a bad record; it simply suffers in comparison with the past achievements of a very talented band. The witty lyrics of ‘Godspell' stand out strongly, attacking the perils of organised religion (or the "great big swindle" as Persson refers to it) with vigour. Elsewhere, the driving wall-of-sound force of ‘Good Morning Joan', tempered by sweetly tinkling bells, is sublime. However, revisiting a track from Long Gone... as the band do on ‘And Then You Kissed Me II' is a mistake; gone is the infectious pop melody that the first instalment possessed, only to be replaced by a drawn-out and discordant inferior with strangely hollow backing. The band themselves have described the relationship of Super Extra Gravity to its predecessor as an obnoxious teenager to its mature older relation. Unfortunately, this acne-and-all approach has exposed some of their less attractive qualities.

Anticlimactically, it turns out that the lead single from the album, the spiky and brilliantly titled ‘I Need Some Fine Wine & You, You Need To Be Nicer', is also its finest track. On the bright side, however, it's an undeniably fine composition, and like Super Extra Gravity's other highlights, it serves as evidence that The Cardigans can still write sophisticated, bristling pop songs for adults, even if they now do so with slightly less consistency.

Danny Weddup
originally published December 12th, 2005

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Mariah Carey
The Emancipation Of Mimi ••••
Island/Def Jam

These days it's too easy to focus on the problems Mariah has been through over the last few years, but on the evidence presented here, her tenth album, she herself certainly isn't wallowing. If last album Charmbracelet reflected Carey's mourning process, then The Emancipation Of Mimi sure ain't the wake. This is an upbeat, light-hearted party record, reflected perfectly in the opening track and first single, ‘It's Like That'. Harking back to 1980s R&B (via the SOS Band) yet with a pounding kick-drum that The Neptunes would be proud of, it's a snappy, simple number that relentlessly invades the brain.

It's no coincidence then that it's one of the four songs on ...Mimi that Carey crafted with long-time collaborator Jermaine Dupri - together they have created some of the most memorable songs of her 15-year career. Second single ‘We Belong Together' maintains that trend, blissfully encapsulating the very best aspects of their union. The finest ingredients are to be found here - a distinct and sumputous melody carrying a universal theme, a classy arrangement and the perfect ratio of smooth to belted vocals. Elsewhere on the album, the party continues with tracks like the Prince-inspired ‘Say Something', the infectious ‘Stay The Night', vocal workout ‘Your Girl' and ‘Get Your Number', which samples Imagination's 1980s hit, ‘Just An Illusion'.

In the past, Carey has best impressed when backed by live musicians, and ...Mimi builds on these successes. ‘I Wish You Knew' takes you straight to the concert with its energetic crowd effect, and is reminiscent of early Diana Ross, while ‘Circles' has a classic early '70s groove without sounding like the wannabe retro peddled by, for example, ultra-bore Joss Stone. This track, and indeed the entire album, benefits from Mariah's maturation as a singer - where once she might have indulged in warbling and melisma, here she has learnt to rein in those early vocal flourishes and sounds all the better for it. Her voice is strong throughout, and a new-found clarity and diction makes much of ...Mimi more accessible then some previous efforts. Although the album as a whole is intended to be light-hearted, closer ‘Fly Like A Bird' is a spiritual number set among stunning live instrumentation and climactic vocals. It feels like closure.

What The Emancipation Of Mimi shows is that, when Carey is put into a position where she feels she has nothing to prove, that freedom translates into her music and allows it to convey a more relaxed energy. Though her popularity in the UK will never scale the heights of her US success, and though many music fans and critics have written her off, Mariah has no reason at all to be bothered. In terrific contrast to the usual, by blinkering herself to much of the outside world's opinion, she has returned with a purer and much better distillation of her craft than anyone could have expected.

Adrian Roye
originally published September 3rd, 2005

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Mara Carlyle
I Blame Dido EP ••••
Accidental

Legend has it that upon her arrival in Libya, Dido, the founder queen of Carthage, was permitted to buy only as much land as could be covered by a bull's hide. Being a wily little minx, she thus proceeded to slice the skin into slivers so fine that they encircled an area of several acres, upon which she built her city. As such, the phrase "to cut up didoes" came to describe an extravagant behaviour.

On first impression, the title of Shropshire-born Mara Carlyle's new EP may seem like an attempt to sever a chunk from the crown of our own queen Dido, perhaps the very antithesis of extravagant, but is in fact "entirely coincidental". That is, according to the cheeky-faced creator of last year's most aptly titled album, The Lovely. Recorded over several years and completed on a secondhand laptop in a north London flat, The Lovely displayed a staggering yet homely virtuosity paired with through-a-glass-darkly operatic vocals that placed Carlyle somewhere along the continuum between early Joan Baez and the gentle lilt of Kathryn Williams.

Continuing the cutting theme momentarily, that album opened with the unforgettable combo of eerie vocals and bendy DIY essential that was ‘The Saw Song' (Carlyle once played in a trio called The Weeping Saws; clearly, she knows her way around a pun or two) but it's the sweeping, smoky ‘I Blame You Not' that finds its way onto this EP. Sounding for all the world like a lost Dusty Springfield in pensive mode classic, it would have sounded equally at home on Feist's Let It Die. With its muffled piano, soft jazzy drums and soothing background coos, it singlehandedly dislodges the stake from the heart of the torch song hammered in by the likes of Katie Melua and the soporific Norah Jones.

The Carthagian connection arrives in the form of a cover of ‘Dido's Lament' from the Henry Purcell opera, ‘Dido & Aeneas'. This was not, as it happens, wholly inspired by the baroque original, but by a spirited take by the dearly departed Jeff Buckley. "Baroque music was meant to be filled with passion when it was written" says Carlyle, "But these days people are too reverential about it." The result is a distinctly tasteful rendition that builds in intensity to a dreamy multi-tracked refrain of "remember me, my fate." It's measured, certainly, but never dull. Carlyle returns again to essential listening territory with a bizarrely soulful cover of labelmate Dani Siciliano's ‘Walk The Line' from last year's Likes... album. Maybe it's the slightly comical baritone beatbox on the blink, but its charm is infectious and somehow improves on the original.

Frankly, anyone who compares opera singing to "weight lifting whilst reciting poetry from memory whilst convincingly acting like you're about to cry / laugh / kill / shag someone" is more than alright by me. If you loved The Lovely, this is like manna from heaven. Else, if you somehow missed out, get this as an entrée and proceed to the main course directly; do not pass Dido, do not regret £10.

Alan Pedder
originally published July 26th, 2005

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Caroline
Murmurs •••
Temporary Residence

With Murmurs, Tokyo's Caroline Lufkin has created an album of such light, polished precision and crystalline sonic clarity that it ought to stickered ‘handle with care'; so soft and feathery are proceedings that you fear you might just scare her off if you sing along too loudly. It's odd then that the first track ‘Bicycle' recalls the theme to ‘Coronation Street' -