Mario Cavalli creates ‘scenes of the songs’ for new Akira Kosemura album, GRASSLAND
Mario Cavalli creates two new videos, XIAO GE ER and LIGHT, for Akira Kosemura’s new CD/DVD album, GRASSLAND, released this week.
DVD also includes a third film, the abstract animation IT’S ON EVERYTHING, the title track from Kosemura’s earlier album, made originally as a fan video to share with Twitter friends. Kosemura was so impressed, he immediately invited Cavalli to create ‘scenes of songs’ for the new album. The result is two visually stunning, very different but very experimental films, both shot on location in Japan.
XIAO GE ER may be the first music video shot entirely on a (non-video) iPhone 3G, using the QuadCamera app, on a train journey taken by Cavalli and Kosemura from Tokyo to the coast at Kamakura. Hundreds of short, eight frame clips were edited in Final Cut Pro and post processed in AfterEffects to create an impressionistic, semi-abstract journey through urban Japan.
XIAO GE ER on YouTube.
LIGHT features an ethereal, sprite-like performance from Ayaka Suga, who danced among the unsuspecting crowds through the busy streets of night-time Shibuya and Ginza districts of Tokyo. Cavalli took on lensing duties, as well as directing and producing, while editing and sfx was done by regular Cavalli collaborators, Simon Bryant and Rob Rae.
LIGHT on YouTube.
