Immersive Chapters Combining Video Art & Music
We reflect on the past output from the duo ahead of the Rants Against the Old World launch on 3 August
Chapters is a video art/music project from Kieran Davis (of CAT CAT) and Sam Crocket (of CAT CAT and Wizard Oz). Taking inspiration from Alien Workshop’s Memory Screen and filmmakers Maya Deren and Stan Barkhage, they combine visuals with music ranging from sample-based found sounds, field recordings, synth-scapes, and experiments inspired by Popol Vuh and Tony Conrad.
In the current climate of navigating the digital music field, I appreciate the approach that Chapters has taken with releasing music and video art together on YouTube as their chosen modality.
In this way, you are invited to listen and watch together, which makes you take notice, take in, and concentrate on the immersive qualities.
Rants Against the Old World was filmed in Australia, Japan and Hawaii from 2022 to 2024 and recorded at the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio where the duo made the most of the vintage instruments at hand. It charts a dreamy passage through the other side of the apocalypse. Rants Against the Old World is the second album-length video the duo produced after Throne of Blood in 2020, which you can view further down.
Preview of Rants Against the Old World:
Between 2021 and 2022, Chapters released a series of one off clips with the day/night cycle as a loose theme using a mix of footage both found and self-created.
Around Midnight is a repetitious tune that leads the listener/viewer around the city aimlessly navigating streets and shops as the music builds towards a crescendo or perhaps an arrival somewhere. Is it like an insomniac that can’t sleep and needs to walk to get out of their head or it could just be the appreciation of walking and taking in the surrounds with a soundtrack to accompany it.
In Before Dawn a hypnotic half time drum beat fills the space with this laid back dub feel and real nice simple keyboard line that keeps on giving. The lights and vision are also hypnotic as you drive forward in what feels like space. I can hear the Tony Conrad connection with a modern twist.
Small Hours is an ambient soundscape with an Eno type pace and feeling as visual layers of clouds and earth float by as rhythmic shuttering sounds develop and build. There is a tension created as the sound pushes you into a hypnotic state before subsiding into silence.
In 2020 Chapters released an album length video of found footage called Throne of Blood. It’s a long journey as the band invites you to settle in for an album of material.
Musically the band was interested in creating a post-punk, dub, trip hop kind of vibe using lots of experiments and samples over live instrumentals.
Upcoming Premiere
Saturday 3 August 2024
Venue: Longplay
Time: 8:30pm
Free show featuring Bad Ambulance live set and visuals followed by the premiere screening of Rants For The Old World by Chapters
