We’ve talked about US-born, Norwegian-Mexican artist and producer Carmen Villain before, specifically about Only Love From Now On her 2022 album that I found “Hypnotic, organic, and wonderfully strange.” Villain is back with another slice of wonder.
Music from The Living Monument is Villain’s score for a contemporary dance performance by Choreographer Eszter Salamon.
From the liner notes:
Acclaimed Choreographer Eszter Salamon’s dance performance The Living Monument is built on still life, slowness and the presence of the body. In the performance, the theatrical elements are equal and interdependent, and it develops into an installation of sound, movement and figures. Each tableau is bound together by Carmen Villain’s hypnotic score in which the audience is taken on a meditative journey through vibrant tableaus in a dreamlike universe. Carmen Villain’s score is a suspension of time where her music is seeking a new form of slow-moving minimalism.
But we don’t need to see anything when listening to Music from The Living Monument, as Villain’s music is cinematic in scope playing out like a direct connection to our innermost (haunted) movements.
Music composed, produced and mixed by Carmen Villain
Choreographer, costume design, performance concept by Eszter Salamon
Vocals recorded by Gunnar Innvær og Leif Herland
Vocals performed by the dancers:
Adrian Bartczak, Aslak Aune Nygård, Anne Lise Rønne, Caroline Eckly, Daniel Mariblanca, Dawid Lorenc, Irene Vesterhus Theisen, Lin van Kaam, Mathias Stoltenberg, Max Makowski, Nadege Kubwayo, Noam Eidelman Shatil, Ole Martin Meland, Tilly Sordat
Mastered by Helge Sten
Photo by Øystein Haara
Artwork by BlankBlank
