Brian Eno-David Byrne | Mea Culpa | Original Bruce Conner Promo Video Restored | 1981
A newly restored HD version of one of Bruce Conner’s official promo films he produced for two tracks from the 1981 Eno-Byrne collaboration album, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
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Eno and Byrne first worked together on Talking Heads 1978 second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was Byrne's first album without Talking Heads. It was primarily recorded during a break between the Talking Heads albums Fear of Music (1979) and Remain in Light (1980), also both produced by Eno. Problems clearing samples delayed the release of Bush of Ghosts by several months.
The album was incredibly innovative and original in its day, integrating sampled vocals and found sounds, African and Middle Eastern rhythms, and electronic music techniques. Eno described My Life as a "vision of a psychedelic Africa". Rather than conventional singing, most of the vocals are sampled from other sources, such as Arabic singers, radio presenters, and in the case of the track Jezebel Spirit, an exorcist. Some musicians had previously used similar sampling techniques, but according to Guardian writer Dave Simpson, sampling had never before been used "to such cataclysmic effect".
Track 2 on the album, Mea Culpa, featured a vocal sample of “inflamed caller and smooth politician replying, both unidentified; radio call-in show, New York, July 1979”, according to the album sleeve notes.
http://davidbyrne.com/explore/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts
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The official short films accompanying two Bush of Ghosts tracks, America Is Waiting and Mea Culpa, were made by Bruce Conner, an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography.
Conner’s innovative technique of skillfully montaged shots from pre-existing borrowed or found footage can be seen in his first film “A Movie” (1958). His subsequent films are most often fast-paced collages of found footage or of footage shot by Conner; however, he made numerous films, including Crossroads, his 30-plus-minute meditation on the atom bomb, that are almost achingly deliberate in their pace.
Conner was among the first to use pop music for film soundtracks. His films are now considered to be the precursors of the music video genre. They have inspired other filmmakers, such as Conner's friend Dennis Hopper, who said, “Bruce’s movies changed my entire concept of editing. In fact, much of the editing of Easy Rider came directly from watching Bruce’s films."
David Byrne initially wrote to Conner around August 1980, asking him if he would be interested in creating a video for a track from the then-forthcoming new Talking Heads album, Remain in Light. Perhaps record company pressure came to bear, to create more commercially viable videos? Anyway, Conner's found footage, abstract cut and paste is a superb match for the Bush of Ghosts material.
Bruce Jenkins, Professor of Film, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago: “Mea Culpa comes near the end of his (Conner’s) active film-making. It’s part of this period when his work is a little slower, a little more considered. There’s a kind of tranquillity… Mea Culpa allows Conner to work with scientific and industrial and educational films, and take out of them the most abstract parts”.
Conner's other collaborations with musicians include Devo (Mongoloid), Terry Riley (Looking for Mushrooms (long version) and Easter Morning), Patrick Gleeson and Terry Riley (Crossroads), and three more films with Gleeson (Take the 5:10 to Dreamland, Television Assassination, and Luke). His film of dancer and choreographer Toni Basil, Breakaway (1966), featured a song recorded by Basil.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/oct/09/art1
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Thanks for watching, I hope you dig it!
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Sources
Video:
MEA CULPA by Bruce Conner | 1981, 16mm, b&w | sound, 5 minutes | Courtesy and (c) Conner Family Trust.
Audio:
Brian Eno-David Byrne | Mea Culpa | from the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts | Recorded 1979–1980 | Released February 1981 | Written by David Byrne and Brian Eno, WB Music Corp. (ASCAP) o/b/o Itself and Index Music, Inc. (ASCAP) Universal Music - MGB Songs on behalf of E.G. Music Ltd. (ASCAP) |Performed by Brian Eno and David Byrne | Courtesy of Nonesuch Records, by arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing.
Musicians:
David Byrne | Brian Eno | guitars, bass guitars, synthesizers, drums, percussion, found objects |Production
Dennis Keeley | bodhrán
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