IN SHALLOW WATER by JOACHIM STILLER
| SKU | 133994 |
| Artist | JOACHIM STILLER |
| Title | IN SHALLOW WATER |
| Label | BBJTC |
| Catalog # | BBJTC16 |
| Tag | |
| Release | W 23 - 2024 |
| Format | Cassette Tape - EUTAPE |
| € 12,00 | incl. VAT, excl. shipping |
Tracks
- A Pebble Is Thrown At An Angle On Top Of A Body Of Water. The Pebble Decides Not To Skip, But To Instead Descent Towards The Bottom Of The Basin.
- Standing With My Own Two Feet In The Damp Sand At 7:45 On A Tuesday Waiting For The Seawater To Crash Onto My Dehydrated Skin – Once Again.
- A Glistening Shadow Asked Me If I Had Ever Seen The Insides Of A Sea Urchin.
- One Lone Thistle That Dreamt Of Growing Fins, Imprinted At The Far Edge Of A Large Accumulation Of Sand, Shriveled And Withered. Caused By An Even Larger Ball Of Fire, It Stood No Chance.
- My Father And I Decide To Seek Out The Storm. It’s Pitch Dark, Which Comes To No Surprise (it’s After Midnight). On Top Of The Barrier, Constructed To Contain The Flow Of Water, I Gasp For Air.
- At The Bottom Of A Body Of Water Lays A Second Pebble. A Pebble That Did Decide To Skip On Top Of This Body Of Water, But Did Not Succeed In Skipping More Than Three Times Consecutively.
- Many Hours Spent Walking On Sun-dried Coral Cliffs In The Deafening Heat. I Long For The Coolness Of Fluids. I Feel My Flip-flops Sliding Off My Feet.
- My Whole Body Is Coated With A Film Of Sweat. The Sun Is At Its Lowest And Tide Is Nearing – Yet I Still Decided To Enter The Blue Room. Its Beauty Was Both To Die For And A Death Sentence.
Description
Remnants of the soundtrack from a cancelled videogame and a shelved space-jazz album collide and reform as a 45 minute ambient-synth opera about the many states of water and what lays within.
The original tracks, recorded 2021–22, never left the demo stage until late 2023 / early 2024, when they were reworked and (re-)mixed to become a more cohesive collection of tracks.
Though the original tracks were inspired by Nintendo DS-games (‘Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, ‘Another Code: Two Memories’, etc.) and Anime (Cowboy Bebop), the 2024 reworks see them becoming something else entirely.
Themes of liquid arose from the only vocal track on this work, ‘A Glistening Shadow’, which follows the story of a man that comes in contact with a creature(s) both of light and darkness, at the seaside - Whom offer the man a glimpse into the insides of a sea urchin (which he refuses).
Using this track as an anchor for the rest of the tracks, the reworks became more wet and mystical with every passing day.
The track titles are appetizers, giving a base mood for every piece,
that on occasion feature some kind of insight to the life of Joachim Stiller - often autobiographical in nature.
Joachim Stiller is one of many monikers used by visual artist and experimental musician Mees Joachim and is a character from a book by Hubert Lampo, namely ‘De komst van Joachim Stiller’, from which Mees’ middle name is derived.
Mees has been using the Joachim Stiller moniker for many moons by now, though the name was only used for a series of performances, a documentary and DJ-sets until recently, with the release of ‘And The Overstaying Of Welcomes’ in 2023, in collaboration with Absolute Candor, being their first outing of original music as Joachim Stiller.
