Friday, May 13, 2011

moss garden

thirty seven years ago i stayed in west berlin for a little while. the city buzzed with energy. artists and musicians were being drawn once more to it as the epicentre of every sort of extravagance and one only had to pass through checkpoint charlie to enter its exact opposite in east berlin.

a couple of years later, david bowie and brian eno were residents of the same berlin.

at that time they crafted the album "heroes" on which a beautiful track entitled "moss garden" can be found.

an instrumental, “moss garden” features bowie plucking a japanese stringed instrument named a koto.

david plucks the koto over a painterly wash of sound crafted by eno that contains
elements of wind, water, and even birds.

the effect is soothing and evocative and conjures up images in my own mind of marshland in the autumn.

it has been used to interesting effect in this film shot on berlin's s-bahn. the film takes a painterly approach through its conscious blurring of the scenery that the camera is passing.
the resultant views in combination with the music are in my view very lovely.

6 comments:

Valerianna said...

Beautifully dreamy.... and considering I just spent the day working in my moss garden, its perfect!

steven said...

valerianna - my first visitor in a while!!! i am very happy that you found a parallel between the music and your garden work. steven

Valerianna said...

Was I /am I the only visitor because of that weird blogger blackout? I'm all mixed up seeing posts re-posted... amazing how easy it is to confuse me if the usual order of things is disturbed. Oh well, it appears things are back to normal, but where are all your usuals I wonder?

steven said...

valerianna - i dunno where every one is but there are all sorts of lights in the woods flickering on and off!!! steven

Jo said...

Steven, this music is truly exquisite. It fills me with peace and joy.

The video, I'm afraid, makes my motion sickness kick into high gear!

So glad to be able to read your blog again. Thank you so much. ♥

steven said...

jo i am happy that you enjoyed the music and i empathize with your motion sickness - i look and turn away. i can't watch films on my computer because of the flashing and i can't play any video games (absolutely no loss but for street cred. as a teacher it's a good thing). i'm glad that this is a good place for you. i'm grateful that you bring such goodness with you. steven