The film "First You Close Your Eyes - Five Days In The Abyss" is about the making of the album called "The Abyss" by Danish singer Esther Maria in New York. Working hard for five days with her musical partner Torsten Stistrup Cubel and the legendary independent musician and producer Kramer (Low, Galaxie 500, Urge Overkill, Daniel Johnston, 22 Pistepirkko) they managed to record most of the album. It was a big project for me to do the film, but I was - and still am - very happy with the end result. The film turned out quite close to my original idea, which I am proud of.
I think the film - besides showing the origin of the album - also sheds some light on Kramer's philosophy on music recording and creation. It somewhat demystifies parts of the process and lets you see how little it takes tech-wise to do this. But at the same time it also clearly reveals how important it is to have years of experience and an uncompromising attitude to music that surely comes from a love of pure art.
Seeing as we now enter the christmas month the band and I figured we would give everyone a little present: The whole 30 minute movie streamed online. You can do that from either the film's website - where you will also find outtakes, videoblogs, an online book and other things - or straight from YouTube.
Please note: Part of the recordings took place in a dark environment and the clarity of the image greatly improves if you set YouTube's streaming quality to one of the HD settings. Also: There are subtitles in both English and Danish. Just click to turn on the captions.
Enjoy!
/ Lars
