"The primary focus of this path of choosing wisely is learning to stay present. Pausing very briefly, frequently throughout the day, is an almost effortless way to do this. For just a few seconds we can be right here. Meditation is another way to train in learning to stay or learning to come back, to return to the present over and over again." ~ Pema Chödrön, from Taking the Leap
"While writing and recording Past Life, we worked to lift layers away, strip down and distill the core elements of the songs, which is reflected in the video. I want to create a world with as little as possible and the video speaks to these minimal aspects of the album. Visually, I was really drawn to the image of individuals passing through light and into shadow, this kind of fleeting glimpse."
“Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. there is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.”
My life involves endless hours of repetitive and frustrating practising, lonely hotel rooms, dodgy pianos, aggressively bitchy reviews, isolation, confusing airline reward programmes, physiotherapy, stretches of nervous boredom (counting ceiling tiles backstage as the house slowly fills up) punctuated by short moments of extreme pressure (playing 120,000 notes from memory in the right order with the right fingers, the right sound, the right pedalling while chatting about the composers and pieces and knowing there are critics, recording devices, my mum, the ghosts of the past, all there watching), and perhaps most crushingly, the realisation that I will never, ever give the perfect recital. It can only ever, with luck, hard work and a hefty dose of self-forgiveness, be "good enough".
And yet. The indescribable reward of taking a bunch of ink on paper from the shelf at Chappell of Bond Street. Tubing it home, setting the score, pencil, coffee and ashtray on the piano and emerging a few days, weeks or months later able to perform something that some mad, genius, lunatic of a composer 300 years ago heard in his head while out of his mind with grief or love or syphilis. A piece of music that will always baffle the greatest minds in the world, that simply cannot be made sense of, that is still living and floating in the ether and will do so for yet more centuries to come. That is extraordinary. And I did that. I do it, to my continual astonishment, all the time.
"Fans of experimental indie rock, mark those calendars: Love, Cloud Cult’s ninth full-length, is coming out March 5 on the band’s own label, Earthology Records. Fans can pre-order the record now via the group’s site. . . The A.V. Clubhas the premiere of the video of its first single, All The Things We Couldn’t See. It’s lush, beautiful, and more of a visual collage than a story—so basically, perfect for a Cloud Cult song."
This mini-doc shares the story of Władysław Tomczyk, a gentleman we unexpectedly met in Katowice, Poland after wrapping a month-long commercial project throughout Europe. His hopeful message of creating life-work by honing one's natural ability is one we value to the core at Variable. What began as an insightful conversation, motivated us to extend our trip by 3 days so we could capture this inspiring man's life.
With no pre-developed story or shot-list, we let our curiosity & conversations with Wladyslaw guide the film. As a result, his outlook on life furthered our belief that contentment through self-acceptance trumps societal approval.
Free your mind.
--
Production Company: Variable
Produced, Directed and Filmed: Variable (Khalid Mohtaseb, Jonathan Bregel, Tyler Ginter) Art Director: Joseph Sciacca Local Coordinator & Translator: Piotr Labercheck
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 05:06PM 
