Sweet Dreams

During creative discussions for the 2011 Hollywood movie “Sucker Punch”, Zack Snyder, the stylized-action-fantasy film’s director, asked Allison Crowe for her take on “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” - the ‘new wave’ smash hit written, and originally performed, by Eurythmics (Annie Lennox & David A. Stewart).

In premiering Allison’s version, “Cover Me” blog’s Eric Garneau says “this ‘Sweet Dreams’ demands to be heard. She delivers a reading on this ’80s mainstay at once beautifully melodious and ferociously in-your-face. The simple recording – guitar and vocals only – bestows on the tune an intimacy that makes it sound like she’s perched square in front of you, serenading you and running through a whole spectrum of emotions.”

Sweet Dreams from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

The film excerpt in this song video, (#10 in Allison’s “16 Songs” album), is from “L’Etoile de Mer”, the avant garde 1928 collaboration of American modernist artist Man Ray (1890 – 1976), French photographer Jacques-André Boiffard (1902-1961) and surrealist poet Robert Desnos (1900- 1945). The film’s characters are portrayed by Desnos and actors André de la Rivière and Kiki de Montparnasse – legendary Parisian artist’s model, music, singer, painter+ born Alice Prin (1901 – 1953).

Giving “The Sea Star” or “The Starfish”, as it’s known in the English language, its liquid, dream-state, appearance, the film-makers shot images via mirrors and through rough + textured glass.

#10 of 16 Songs

             

Doughnut Song

Item 6 on the menu of Allison Crowe’s uniquely delicious “16 Songs” Video Album offers more delicate a balance than, say, Dadaist imagery stirred with Crowe’s social commentary, or, any cultural seasonings of Welsh Rarebit and Radiohead.

American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898- 1976) is the originator of the ‘mobile’ – the name coined for his kinetic sculptures by the famed French-American chess-player and conceptual artist+ Marcel Duchamp.

“Ballet” – featuring Calder’s mobiles - is the fifth of seven dream sequences contained in Hans Richter’s 1947 surrealist movie “Dreams That Money Can Buy” – given the Award for the Best Original Contribution to the Progress of Cinematography at the Venice Film Festival.

Doughnut Song from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.
             

Here, Calder/Richter’s creation dances with Allison Crowe’s interpretation of “Doughnut Song” – composed by one of the Canadian musician’s greatest inspirations, American singer-songwriter, pianist+ Tori Amos.

A classical piano prodigy, born Myra Ellen Amos, enormously influential and loved in popular music, Tori reveals some of her own key ingredients: "I've always been inspired by visual artists of all mediums because, as with Music, Art is not a job you can go to and leave from; but it is something that defines who and what you are."

#6 of 16 Songs

Disease

An all-time great rock song and performance kicks off “16 Songs”. Here’s Allison Crowe live-in-concert – captured by Turtle Recording’s Larry Anschell (Engineer and Producer) and Brad Graham (Co-Engineer). 

Lyrical and social themes “as we replace marble with plastic” mesh visually with “Dreams That Money Can Buy” – the avant garde cinematic creation of German surrealist, Dadaist+ Hans Richter and collaborators. "The Girl with the Prefabricated Heart", the second of DTMCB’s seven dream sequences, is shaped by the rich vision of French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker, Fernand Léger. This experimental feature film received the Award for the Best Original Contribution to the Progress of Cinematography at the 1947 Venice Film Festival.

"Power-house intense" says an European reviewer, “"the energy of ‘Disease' can easily provide electricity to a small country for a decade."

Writing in Süddeutsche Zeitung, a major German daily newspaper, journalist Peter Baier sets the stage (in this translation): “From the outset the Canadian songwriter wins the favor of the audience and increases the expectations with her coloratural laugh. Allison Crowe plays the piano with a strong grip. Its sound fits perfectly to her slightly-smoky, expressive, in short: Great voice. Sometimes her playing recalls the keyboard-capers of Konstantin Wecker and then there are moments to bring to mind Modest Mussorgsky’s „Pictures at an Exhibition“.

(And in the original text: Bereits mit ihren ersten Ansagen gewinnt die kanadische Songwriterin mit eigenem Label die Gunst des Publikums, lässt mit ihrem Koloratur-Lachen die Erwartung auf Weiteres ansteigen. Mit kräftigem Zugriff spielt Allison Crowe das Klavier, zu dessen Klang ihre leicht rauchige, ausducksstarke, kurz: große Stimme hervorragend passt. Manchmal erinnert ihr Spiel an die Tasten-Eskapaden eines Konstantin Wecker, dann wieder gibt es Momente, die an den Stil von Modest Mussorgsky's „Bilder einer Ausstellung“ denken lassen.)

“Amazing composition,” says another in the musician’s broadly international audience, “there is so much intellect in the music writing of Allison Crowe, which you don’t see anywhere these days, not from the new artists nor the established ones.”

It’s an intellect revealed in part via inspired musical choices and its energetic expression is visceral in nature. Energy flows from the performer on-stage to engulf concert-goers as well. Spontaneous eruptions - stomping feet, clapping hands, rhythmically pulsing bodies – accompany this song (a recent bootleg video from Jazzhaus Freiburg further testifies to this rocking reality).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6t4Gk15IB4

#1 of 16 Songs

        

Crayon and Ink + Destino (excerpt)

One of Allison Crowe’s much-loved, “early”, songs on-stream with animation begun in the 1940s by Salvador Dali and realized by succeeding generations of Disney studio animators.