2015/08/12

BEIJING OUTAKE

It’s been a crazy busy few weeks and I am just finishing up my last tasks this week, including a beautiful and intense video shoot for Jaimi Faulkner I got back home late last night and ended up editing most of the night. I find it difficult to leave the energy of the shoot when the images and possibilities are so close and fresh.

Speaking of recently completed work, here is the video for Ben Barritt’s first single, which I directed and was released today:

It’s been harder to leave the recording of the Journeys #3 EP, which we are half way through. But it is also sometimes useful to allow oneself to leave things.

For now, I have the happy sense of tying up many loose ends, and feeling the time to take a few weeks break has come at the right moment. I’m looking forward to picking up the threads of life – especially of the Journeys project, once I return from the little mountain cottage in the Alps where I’ll be taking some time out. I am looking forward to views, to the fresh air, time away from cities. I also know that the third Journey is coming up – and how much energy it will take. There’s now way to prepare yourself better than by doing absolutely nothing!

I posted this little outtake from the Beijing residency partly because the official release of Journeys #2 is to begin in September, and partly, just in the spirit of moving on. If you’d like to read deeper about my reflections on the China trip, please check out my JOURNAL SERIES FOR NBHAP or the documentary which your can rent HERE

For me the little video posted is a special memory. It happened in the first few days of arriving, while walking back from Jianghu where I was playing.

After losing the EMI deal it took a long time to recreate a path forward in music – and I arrived in China with a deep sense of uncertainty about what I was doing, why I was doing it, and if it was the right thing. I knew there was something out there, but i had no sense of whether I was looking in the right place.

That night strolling through the Hutongs, I learnt something of the welcoming spirit of the Chinese people – so reserved in some senses – but so open if the feeling is right for them.

I especially love the song played by the wonderful Chinese gentleman at the end. But mostly, I just felt a sense of belonging, which was in such contrast to my sense of anxiety as I flew into the smog of Beijing after the festival in Vladivostok.

Anyway. For now this chapter comes to a close – or at least, there is a pause before Journeys continues. Watch out for the vinyl a little later in the year which will be available on the SHOP

Best wishes all, and feel welcome to share your own thoughts and responses in the comments below x Jim