John Foxx And The Maths have enlisted renowned Japanese film-maker Macoto Tezka to produce a couple of videos for tracks from their last two albums, this year’s Evidence and 2012’s The Shape Of Things. Foxx premiered the ‘Evidence’ promo on his Facebook page earlier today (watch that at the foot of the piece), and we’re now delighted to be able to host ‘Talk’. Have a watch of that above, with Tezka, son of Osamu Tezuka, the ‘Godfather of Anime’ and creator of the Astro Boy series, giving some insight into how he produced the videos below, and head to Metamatic Records’ website to get hold of the records.
"One day, I came across a very old, classic western-style building in a corner of Ginza-town in central Tokyo. A building stood at the location for well over 80 years. It’s one of a Tokyo’s relics of the past that survived war-fire and many earthquakes. In the building, there are a couple of stairs around an old mechanical elevator. It used to be an apartment but no one lives there anymore. Now galleries and antique stores occupy the building. Walking through a narrow passage, I thought about the past and imagined how people lived here. Imagery of old silent films flashed into my imagination.
"A few months later, I visited there again with my actor friends and a cinematographer, because I couldn’t think of a better location for the John Foxx And The Maths videos. John’s music has a feeling of déjà vu. It’s always fresh but somehow nostalgic. A silhouette of a figure that walks through an old avenue; a vague, indistinctive face… That is the image created by his music. But some images of my own memories also came up.
"Our cinematographer shot this film with a Canon camera. Before editing, it had sharply-defined shapes and vivid color, so I removed it all. Next, I adjusted the speed to express an eternal moment. Then I synchronised the music to the image and I found something was still missing. By watching the film for many weeks I kept asking myself, ‘what’s missing’? Then an idea came up to my mind to bring the film to perfection. The gaps of ‘scattered memories and missing time’ need to be added. So I decided to attach these ‘invisible moments’ to fill the gap. The film was finished by these invisible moments.
"Ms. Cay in the video for ‘Talk’ is a dancer and actress. She heads up a worldwide performance unit called ‘Tokyo Dolores’. This short song has uniqueness and a mystical sense of beauty; it brings me back to the pictures of surrealistic piece of art. Such dreams expressed in the film have a similar essence to a Japanese tanka poem."
