Cool Things from My Friends: Mirror Image by Bec Plexus & Pascal Le Boeuf
I’ve wanted to do a series on my blog featuring the many creative exploits my friends are up to around the globe. However, it’s always tricky to make these kinds of posts, because I never want to sound like I’m bragging about others to seem cool myself. I would rather have the focus be on their art, because regardless of how I know them, these people are doing great artistic work and are impacting their surroundings with what they create. I know things will grow and develop as I figure out how to craft these pieces, but for now we’ll stick with this title and format until I want to change things around.
Recently, Bec Plexus released her latest collaborative record, Sticklip, a project focused on working with composers to create works and then transform them beyond the original notation. Here is a description of the project from her Bandcamp page: “Introducing the wildly playful avant electronica of Amsterdam-based Bec Plexus, whose musical mantra is to invite and invert. Her meticulously structured debut recording STICKLIP wanders to unexpected places with each song serving as a channel for a secret to be revealed: an absurdist confessional booth in the ‘church’ of Bec Plexus.” I agree, that this album is a wild ride through different sounds, textures, ideas, and presentations, with “Mirror Image” being one of the crowning jewels on the record. Seriously, go look at the album credits, there are dozens of creatives involved in the composing, tracking, mixing, and producing of this album! This video was organized by Bec Plexus and New York contemporary jazz/classical/collaborative artist Pascal Le Boeuf with percussionist Ian Chang and the Grammy-nominated JACK String Quartet, all shot and directed with the team at Four/Ten Media. The track was featured on David Byrne’s radio program on April 30th, it received some great press in the New York Times, AND it won 2 awards at The Independent Music Awards!
The full album was released in April on the New Amsterdam Records label, and to celebrate the release of the album, Bec Plexus had a tour planned. With Covid-19 cancelling this US tour, Bec Plexus and her partner in life/crime/music Allison Wright (No Compliments) recently completed a 24-hour livestream to celebrate Sticklip! I caught a good chunk of it, seeing interviews with people who were involved on the project, performances from friends in the Sticklip extended family of artists, AND seeing 10 new music videos, all tracked/mixed/mastered/edited in 3 weeks, to emphasize the live aspect of Sticklip’s music. You can catch moments of the streams on Facebook and YouTube, but the videos will also be steadily released over the coming weeks.
Congrats to everyone involved in this project, it’s super cool to look at, and the music surrounding the visuals is wonderful!
