London-based singer songwriter Emma Tricca’s acclaimed 2018 album St Peter (Which was a Featured Album of the Month here) is a record full of unexpected twists and turns, both musically and lyrically.
But perhaps the album’s most striking revelation comes towards the end, when American folk legend Judy Collins guests on the penultimate track Solomon Said. Over a rolling backdrop of oceanic drones and chimes, Collins recites the lyrics from one of her most beautiful songs, Albatross. It was one of the standout tracks picked up by Thomas Blake in his review of the album:
“Solomon Said is seven and a half minutes of unsettling spoken-word narration set against a building guitar figure. It is unsettling, uncanny and fragmentary, Judy Collins’ magnificent voice recites her own song “Albatross”, remaining deadpan while the music around her slowly rouses itself into a maelstrom of discord worthy of John Cale…exceptional.”
The backing track started life as a studio jam begun by Tricca and producer-guitarist Jason Victor and fleshed out by instrumentalists Steve Shelley and Pete Galub ‘I wanted a female voice to recite a poem over the music,’ Tricca says. ‘So I reached out to Judy’s management. We were going to use just sections of the song, but when we were mixing we realised that we had to use the whole piece. It just fitted so perfectly on the album, like it was meant to be. It was pure magic.’
With Judy Collins turning 80 this week (May 1st) it seemed like an ideal time to share the accompanying video with the world which was filmed by Julian Hand (Julian provides a great insight into it’s making below). I love this video so much – it was also filmed on Super 8 and I’ve been dying to share this for a while now as it’s one of the most visually enchanting videos I’ve watched in a long time. It has a real soul and captures the spirit of the song so well. It’s also our Song of the Day.
Judy had some beautiful words to share about the track as well:
“Emma Tricca has a unique voice and vision. It was an honor for her to use Albatross in Solomon Said! We’ll be hearing from this creative visionary for a long time”.
Julian Hand on the making of the video:
Morning to night, cine poetry on a day in NYC set to Emma Tricca’s song
I flew out to New York with folk musician Emma Tricca. Our aim was to explore the metropolis and shoot a series of Super 8mm film cartridges.
We hoped to obtain enough footage to complete x3 music videos for use as promotional material for her forthcoming studio album.
I drew inspiration from her songwriting to create a filmic and poetic response to her music.
During my time in the sprawling metropolis, Emma took me to places she frequented and introduce me to the people she loved, hoping to add a deeper and more personal feel to the content of the film.
I also explored alone (just the camera and me) and discovered places and roads less walked by newcomers to the city. One such journey took me to the former docks and industrial hub of the once infamous Red Hook. There I took in magnificent views of the East River and the soaring Manhattan skyline.
Through the lens, I set out to gather images of life in the city. I desired to create a picture of the urban landscape and the dwellers within, the source of Emma’s original inspiration.
Details illuminated in photo-chemical flare now flash in my mind’s eye; Street signs and signals, cafes and their patrons, street markings and traffic, window displays and reflection, guitars and gunslingers, brickwork and paving, concrete and glass, fire escapes and steam vents, rooftops and skyline, subway trains, commuters, Coney Island baby’s, sunsets over Manhattan from way-up-high to dirty canals and the Hudson shimmering in the winter haze with the lights upon the distant towering horizon. All things I believe indicative of New York from a strangers cine-eye.
http://emmatricca.com/
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