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Dear All!
Long time has passed since we left Greenwoman on it’s way to an Indian tour with concerts and a video shoot in mind. And your support on our bank account.
Let us just remind you: Greenwoman, 4 musicians and a visual artist around Malcolm Braff, with good songlines, fuzzy rhythms and a nascent idea about changing the world (and electronics).
Hark, we have news!
1) Video shooting: Done! Thanks to you we had epic adventures filming images in India. Organising a shooting in India in advance from Europe had proved challenging, but open questions were solved at a spanking pace almost magically once we’d hit the ground and connected with new people there. Within less than a week after Greenwoman’s concert in Goa, Alexandre Gaeng, our video director, launched entirely new and unplanned collaborations with an art collective that very quickly designed and produced accessories and costumes made of recycled fabrics and objects, and a professional contemporary dance group lead by a couple of Spanish/Indian choreographers joined us in a beautiful spice farm setting for a shooting involving… an elephant!!! Furthermore, thanks to an NGO that offers several classes to children living in the slums of Mumbai (as do 60% of the city’s 20 million people), Alex accessed the intimacy of Dharavi, the major slum area of Mumbai, and was able to shoot pictures of ethereal beauty there which we’re very much looking forward to show you. Have a look at some unpublished pictures of Greenwoman’s adventures in India here:
http://greenwoman.ch/makingof-india/
2) We’ve got new recruits*: a rare kind of bird indeed it was that Greenwoman was looking for, and after assiduous work, passionate research and some luck, Malcolm ran into Knut Kaulke somewhere in the U.K. countryside at an international meeting of extremely geeky and lovely people. He’s our wizard of physical modelling applied to music, he’s from Berlin, and he creates beautiful organic sounds, electronic textures and effects. Malcolm and him are tireless about trying out new things on a special machine called the Kyma, evoking strange concepts and using a kind of mystical cryptic langage which the rest of the troup has learned to appreciate as sweet weird angel talk. Their Kyma machines can also « talk » with Alex’s computers to create novel visual effects…
3) We’re at work: You should know that special grooves are a very important component of the music of Greenwoman. And electronic music techniques and killing sound are now in the recipe too. Since you last heard of us, we recorded superb drum tracks by Lukas Koenig in almost every available space of la Maison des Artistes in Chamonix with Hoover Le*, a Vietnam born U.S. sound engineer/yogi of a rare kind who’s professional pedigree shines across several decades of transatlantic excellency and who’s also now joined group. And that’s not all! Greenwoman 2.0. wants to experiment on a collective level, and we are, as we speak, meeting in the ARC, an artist residency center in the ancient stone town of Romainmôtier (CH) for a month. The place is magically vibrant and spring energy all around is supporting our endeavours. In a manner typical of Malcolm’s approach as a project launcher, the nature of the output of this residency was willingly kept open until we could all meet up and start wiring up (in the literal as well as in the figurative sense). And as we speak, the new collective is still defining itself through discussions and experimental try-outs pertaining to technology, methodology and, finally, poetic and musical content.
4) We’re going live: we are excited and happy to have an opportunity to bring our new experiments on stage soon at the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris on May 18th 2017. We’ll share the stage there with OY, a delicious CH/Nigeria electro artist based in Berlin who was honoured with a nomination at the Swiss Music Prize together with Malcolm in 2015.
In conclusion, let us just say that this bundle of projects, both ambitious and unhurried, has so far followed a rather sinewy path and as of today both music and video are still in the making. Rest assured, however, that you will be the first to know when they are ready!
And until then, well…take good care!
Yours,
Greenwoman Malcolm Braff, Alexandre Gaeng, Claire Huguenin, Knut Kaulke, Lukas Koenig, Hoover Le
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Bonjours à tous les amis, (⬇︎English version below⬇︎)
WE MADE IT !!! les mots nous manquent pour exprimer la gratitude et l’excitation qui nous ont gagnés en voyant les figures du wemakeit atteindre les 100%. Cela nous a donné une sacrée rasade de motivation supplémentaire!
Nous venons de quitter Goa où la première phase du tournage made in India s’est déroulé dans des conditions extraordinaires. Imaginez: les contacts réalisés sur place après le concert on abouti en moins d’une semaine et l’équipe rassemblée hier comportait finalement plus de 30 personnes!!!
Maintenant nous sommes à Mumbai où la fin du tournage aura lieu dans le bidonville de Dharavi, qui abrite un nombre estimé d’habitants allant de 300’000 à 1 million sur 217 hectares. Grâce à la fondation Acorn, Alex notre vidéaste y est introduit et escorté avec la discrétion et la délicatesse nécessaires.
Quelle aventure! On vous fait mille bisous.
Alex, Malcolm, Claire, Björn & Lukas
WE MADE IT!!! we lack the words to express the excitement and gratitude which overwhelmed us as the budget reached 100% last week. It gave us a new dose of motivation for the project!!!
We have just left Goa after completing the first phase of the video shoot in amazing circumstances. The spontaneous networking that happened after our concert there brought together a team of 30 people in less than 48 hours!
Now we’re in Mumbai to complete the end of the shooting in the Dharavi slum. An estimated 300’000 to 1 million people live on 217 hectare. Thanks to our contact with the Acorn Foundation, our videomaker Alex could be introduced there with the necessary discretion.
What an adventure!! A thousand kisses,
Alex, Malcolm, Claire, Björn & Lukas
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Coucou tout le monde, (english text below)
Hier soir à Goa nous avons terminé notre tournée en beauté.
Pendant notre morceau Tense Floor Claire est descendue danser dans le public auquel elle a littéralement mis le feu!
En très peu de temps tout le monde s’y est mis.
Après le concert nous avons fait plein de contacts, c’était magique. A tel point que nous avons décidé de repousser notre tournage à Bombay d’une semaine pour filmer des plans additionnels ici à Goa.
Notamment nous avons fait la connaissance de Lakshmi, une adorable éléphante qui barrit tout doucement en faisant pipi lorsqu’on lui gratouille gentiment l’épaule!
Nous avons eu quelques problèmes techniques à mettre en ligne la nouvelle contrepartie mais c’est maintenant chose faite. Si vous voulez voir Greenwoman interpréter des paroles de votre composition, c’est le moment où jamais!
Il nous reste moins de 2 jours pour atteindre notre objectif, c’est la dernière ligne droite. Aidez-nous, partagez avec vos proches!
Hi everybody!
Yesterday we ended our tour beautifully in Goa. During the Tense Floor song, Claire came down off the stage to dance and the audience was electrified! In no time everyone was dancing.
After the concert we made a lot of contacts, it was magical. So much that we decided to postpone our shooting in Bombay for one week to make some additional filming in Goa.
We met Lakshmi, a lovely female elephant that trumpets softly and peas if you gently scratch her shoulder.
We’ve had some technical issues trying to put the new reward online, but finally it’s done, so if you want to see Greenwoman interpret lyrics of your writing, it’s now or never!
There are less than 2 days left until the crowdfunding is over. This is the last sprint. Help us, share it with your friends and acquaintances.
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Grüezi, bonjour, namaste everybody! (⬇︎English version below⬇︎)
Salutations chaleureuses depuis l’Inde où notre merveilleuse tournée hyperactive se poursuit. Nous avons déjà joué dans deux villes de ce pays pas banal, New Delhi et Hyderabad…
Et tandis qu’on se prépare à faire swinguer Calcutta ce soir, nous voulions vous dire un GRAND MERCI d’avoir participé à notre collecte de fonds pour tourner un clip à Mumbai à l’issue de cette tournée. À vous tous (55 personnes), vous avez rassemblé plus de 2’600.- pour le budget que notre vidéaste Alexandre saura dépenser sagement – on lui fait confiance :)
Nous avons cependant encore besoin de récolter 1000.- dans les 5 prochains jours… Si vous pensez encore pouvoir nous aider, partagez ce lien sur Facebook ou par e-mail. Enfin, le bouche à oreille est encore permis…
→ Au fait, il y a une nouvelle contrepartie disponible: nous enregistrons une version personnalisée de l’un de nos morceaux en incluant les paroles de votre choix!!!
Avec amour,
Malcolm, Claire, Björn, Lukas and Alexandre
PS: Voici un petit vidéo-hello: http://youtu.be/7zz804id0z8
Grüezi, hello, namaste everybody!
Warm greetings from our amazingly hectic Indian tour and a huge THANK YOU for supporting us 55 times in the making of our first music video… you’ve collectively put together 2’600.- in the budget for our clip director Alexandre to spend – wisely. We trust him :)
So we’ve just played in two major Indian cities, New Delhi and Hyderabad. And tonight we’re planning to rock Calcutta! Before this tour ends though, we’ll still be looking for another 1’000.- for the video which we’ll shoot after the tour is over in Bombay.
If you’re still feeling like you can help this project take place, please share this link around you <3
→ By the way, there’s a new reward up for grabs: A customised version of one of our songs incorporating the lyrics of your choice!!!
With love,
Malcolm, Claire, Björn, Lukas and Alexandre
PS: Here’s a small video-hello: http://youtu.be/7zz804id0z8