Track Of The Day 9/6 - Christian Löffler

'Ballet'

*Christian Löffler's* music has always sought to pin down fragmentary emotions.

A *composer whose work* is replete with contradictions, he will often use graceful, melodic electronics in a fractured setting, somehow conjuring a a vast network of feelings.

2020's 'Lys' arrived during lockdown, and it seemed to conjure something of the alien, dystopian loneliness that so many of us went through.

His song 'Ballet' was a stand out moment, with its frosted vocal set against digital production that seemed to crumble at the touch.

A full video for 'Ballet' has been shot by West Coast production team *On A Whim*, and it finds a variety of characters traversing San Francisco during lockdown.

At first it's shocking to see the city so empty, so devoid of people; but then we get to grips with each character, as they move through this strange landscape.

Director Asya Nikolaeva helmed the short film, with choreographer Pavel Brenna assisting throughout.

The results are remarkable, with a number of visual metaphors building into the creative codex.

Asya comments...

"We set to find a physical object and a symbol that could metaphorically convey people's emotional state during the lockdown. And we chose ice to be that object."

"We imagined our new reality, where people have to distance themselves from one another and where human communication is simply dangerous. Numbing emotions is the only way to survive in such a world. Our characters are doing so by consuming ice. They are feeding on ice, bathe in ice, they search for it. This way by eating cubes of ice they freeze their human feelings and emotions from the inside."

"So now it seems they can survive despite the lack of human contact. But at the end, we see that any lockdown and shelter in place cannot suppress our human nature. After all, the only thing people cannot live without is other people..."

Tune in now.

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