Triptych Conversations

Wystan Auden (1908-1973) was British-American and one of the most celebrated poets of his generation. He would emigrate from the UK to the USA in 1939 on the eve of the Second World War (something for which many in the British establishment never forgave him). But before he crossed the Atlantic, he saw his role as a form of literary journalist. After witnessing something of the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, he travelled around Europe as many increasingly felt the inevitability of renewed conflict, a mere twenty years or so after the Armistice ending the previous war.

In Brussels, he visited Belgium’s fine art museum, and found himself gripped by several works in the gallery’s Brueghel room.  Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c1525-1569) was a Dutch Old Master who specialised in complex group scenes and landscapes, often setting biblical or mythological narratives in the world of his contemporaries. In the course of his poem, Auden alludes to three such paintings, although it is the 3rd (Landscape with the Fall of Icarus) which held his primary focus.

For follow up:

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a pioneering Russian-born artist and theorist who emigrated to France in the 1930s after living in Germany (including a decade teaching at the famous Bauhaus). He was committed to finding ways to create ‘pure’ art through use of abstraction and colour especially.

His first career was in academic law, and he was very successful, being offered a professorship in Estonia before he was 30. But he turned his back on it to concentrate on painting, beginning his studies in Munich in 1896. He moved back and forth between Central Europe and Russia even after the 1917 Russian Revolution, but he soon realised that his outlook was worlds apart from that of the new regime.

Quite what his beliefs were is hard to pin down, but at the very least he was influenced by a unique cocktail of Russian Orthodoxy, Theosophy, Wagnerian theories of total art, and much besides. He was famously synaesthesic (as Sophie explains in the episode) which features in his extraordinary 1910, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. 

I (Mark) absolutely loved Amor Towles’ wonderful 2016 book, A Gentleman in Moscow, not least because of a rather ghoulish fascination with the early years of the Russian Revolution.

When I heard about its TV adaptation with Ewan McGregor, I was nervous, to say the least. Thankfully, I thought they did a really good job of it in the end. But I became totally obsessed with the Opening Titles, which clearly owe no little inspiration from Kandinsky! Simply beautiful…

Snarky Puppy is a jazz fusion collective started by the legend that is bassist Michael League (right) in 2004. Since then over 40 musicians have played with them at various points, though they usually feature 10-15 players at a time in the studio or live.

Their 2014 album We Like It Here was made while the band was doing a huge European tour, and was recorded before a live audience in Utrecht, Netherlands on four consecutive nights.

The final track, Lingus, apparently got its title from the fact that League was jotting down parts for the different musicians while on an Aer Lingus flight!

League explained the group’s membership ethos to All About Jazz. If a player could earn more for a gig outside the band

… we’d get a substitute and if the substitute played well, then it felt like, ‘Well, they learned the music and played great, what a waste for them to learn all that for one gig…’ so we would kind of just keep them in the Rolodex, so to speak, and rotate them in and out. Then it became a thing where we started touring so much that guys couldn’t do all the dates, or didn’t want to, or whatever.

That would change the way that they played the music. And then even when that new person left, that memory of that new relationship with the music would remain. So really we just kept building on the personalities of the new people that would come in, brick by brick. …in general, the guys understand what the band is – a rotating cast…

But I don’t really think of Snarky Puppy as a collective. It’s just a large band and sometimes people aren’t there. It doesn’t feel like a revolving door, it doesn’t feel anonymous at all. The guys who have played gigs with us the least have still played several hundred gigs. That’s more than most people play with their own bands. So it’s very much a tight, familial unit. Everyone feels very, very close and very essential, also.

Photos (r) ©Andrea Rotili (at the Fano Jazz Network)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was first released in 2004 by French director Michel Gondry, having been written by Charlie Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth as well as Gondry (right, with  Carrey).

The cast is uniformly good, led by Jim Carrey (in a significant departure from his previous zany roles) and Kate Winslet (7 years after Titanic) with a number of others who were well on their way to  much greater recognition: Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst.

The film is a quirky and charming story about love, relationships, and memory. What sets it apart from standard predictable romcoms is the Sci-Fi premise at its heart: a neurological technique that enables a “psychiatrist” to probe inside a person’s brain to identify and then delete undesired memories. But as often, the technique is a mere plot device and so fairly marginal to the film’s heart. It is visually stunning but psychologically profound and thought-provoking.

The film won Best Screenplay Oscar in 2005 as well as several other screenplay gongs, and Kate Winslet was nominated for an Oscar too.

Other links:

Ghosteen is a double-album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, produced by Cave and long-standing bandmember Warren Ellis. It followed their 2016 studio album Skeleton Key, a work that was near completion when Cave’s son Arthur was killed in a fall while aged only 15. Despite that, that album as a whole felt strangely prescient of the coming tragedy with its themes of loss and grief.

But by the time Ghosteen came out, Cave and his wife Susie, had processed much, though by no means all, of their pain. This perhaps inevitably was kneaded into this album, which unusually these days works best when considered as a united whole. The Caves’ very private tragedy had been exposed all too publicly. But the remarkable aspect of this music is how powerful it has subsequently proved for countless others experiencing their own grief. While never as concrete or explicit (not least because it is a musical and poetic work rather than a book), it is not surprising that some have responded to it as they have to C. S. Lewis’s poignant final book, A Grief Observed.

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was a Nigerian novelist and academic who pioneered, and thus helped to create interest in, African fiction in particular, and post-colonial fiction more generally. Things Fall Apart, coming out in 1958, was the game-changer, the first of what would become The African Trilogy.

Growing up in British-ruled Nigeria as a proud member of the Igbo people group, Achebe was acutely conscious of how perceptions of Africa and Africans were shaped almost exclusively by white writers and reporters. And like that best morsel of writerly advice, if you don’t see the books you want to read on the shelves, then you’ll have to write them yourself.

Here is another title taken from verse. In this case, its title is taken from W. B. Yeats’ highly influential poem (one we had to learn by heart at school, although I was always rubbish at that): The Second Coming, a poem that feels as relevant these days as it ever did.

The book is full of wonderful character descriptions and gives a vivid sense of the complex social interactions of a whole host of different people. So to help navigate, we came up with a cast list of the key players:

For follow up:

Masterpieces we’re jealous of:

Baltimore was the first big international hit for The Tamlins, a Jamaican reggae group founded in 1970 and renowned for their remarkable vocal skills. The original lineup was Carlton Smith, Junior Moore and Winston Morgan. From small beginnings in nightclubs, they became highly sought after by producers and singers alike for their rich harmonies and superb musicality, working with the likes of Peter Tosh in particular, as well as with Delroy Wilson, Pat Kelly, John Holt, and Jimmy Cliff.

The original song was written in by the highly influential composer Randy Newman for his 1977 album Little Criminals. But it took the legendary Nina Simone to nudge it into a form closer to The Tamlins’ version for her eponymous 1978 album Baltimore.

The Tamlins’ line-up was originally made up of Carlton Smith, Junior Moore and Derrick Lara, each a remarkably strong singer in his own right. But a wonderful synergy occurs when they work together, such that the sum is greater even than its great parts. They have been described as “a cross between Bob Marley and Earth Wind & Fire, a combination that makes them definitely worth experiencing live.” However, it’s no longer possible to hear the original group as Derrick Lara sadly died of cancer in Feb 2020.

For more information, check out the bio and recordings list here at Reggaeville.

Oh an while we’re talking about Baltimore, here’s some info about the phenomenon that was The Wire that Mark mentioned.

Marina Abramović was born in Belgrade, in the Serbian part of what was then Yugoslavia, a year after the end of the Second World War. Her parents had been very involved in Tito’s Partisans and so had a privileged place in post-war Yugoslav society. Their activities meant that she was largely brought up by her religious grandparents for the first few years of life.

She has been a pioneer of performance art, presenting works with hair-raising levels of threat and vulnerability. Most celebrated / notorious / infamous (take your pick!) was her Rhythm 0 which entailed her standing for six hours in a Naples Art Gallery next to 72 objects (which included food and drink, scissors, a gun and a bullet). Visitors were invited to do whatever they wanted to her, using one of the objects. It started off gently, but by the end one visitor even held a loaded gun at her head.

After her 20 year relationship and working partnership with Ulay (the West German Uwe Laysiepen), they devised a formal end by walking from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China and meeting in the middle. When they did, they greeted one another, spoke briefly, and then each continued their journeys. The next time they would meet was in 2010 at ‘The Artist is Present’.

She made ‘The Artist is Present’ at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York in 2010. A documentary about the process and experience was then released in 2012.

This involved sitting at an empty table for around 730 hours in total, and visitors were allowed to sit with her for a minute. There was to be no speaking or physical contact, just being in one another’s presence. Many spoke of the extraordinary experience of sitting like this with a stranger.

This German-language film won Best Foreign Language Oscar and made a far greater impact on Anglophone cinema audiences than German films often get. It is set in East Berlin in 1984 (of course, it’s no accident that this was the year selected), under communist rule. The GDR (German Democratic Republic: ie East Germany) was constantly scrutinised and patrolled by the country’s security services, (the Stasi). And this fictitious account posits the possibility of one senior officer who finds himself swept up in the lives of those he is charged with surveilling.

In some quarters the film was highly controversial, because of the sheer implausibility of a single individual having both  the means and the opportunity to do what Gerd Wiesler (played by the astonishing Ulrich Mühe) did in the film. There were just too many internal checks and ‘safeguards’ to prevent such unilateral action. This is debated, of course, but the wonder of the film is that it does find humanity in the bleakest of contexts. And that is what makes this such an inspiring work of art (perhaps naively, perhaps not).

For here, see that art and humanity can pierce through the rigid constructs of a totalitarian state and make a difference. The film’s 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes is well-deserved.

One of the film’s great sadnesses is that Ulrich Mühe (right) died post-production but before general release. So he never got to see the impact it made around the world.

Most will be (blissfully) unaware that Mark has been working on a novel about life in East Germany for almost a decade (!!) now. Here are some of his happy snaps from a research trip way back in 2018 (incl. visits to the former Stasi HQ and the Hohenshönhausen remand prison.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic era, one who seemed to straddle the musical worlds of east and west. He wrote music on a grand scale for operas, ballets and symphonies. His turbulent emotional life is born out in the clear turbulence of his music.

The 4th Symphony was written in 1877/78 after the excruciating breakup of his marriage that had lasted only one month. As Sophie explains in the episode, one thing that makes this work so special is that we have a record of the composer’s correspondence with his patroness Nadezdha von Meck in which he articulates precisely what he is doing in ‘our symphony’.

Despite the whole symphony sometimes being nicknamed ‘Fate’, Tchaikovsky wrote that fate is primarily represented by the insistent and invincible brass fanfare at the very start.

It has been relatively tricky to find out much about the photographer, Robin Farquharson. So far, I’ve discovered that he was born in Jamaica in 1944, went to boarding school in England and studied photography at Rhode Island School of Design (1965-68). If you know more about him, or especially if Robin can get in touch with us, we’d love to hear more!

The Crooner and I saw his photograph Stony Ground on display at the National Gallery of Jamaica back in July 2023 when I was in the country for a work trip. (Incidentally, it’s a super gallery and deserves a far higher profile.)

Some other related links:

Born in 1961 to Canadian parents on a NATO base in West Germany, Douglas Coupland is a successful novelist, artist and designer based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture was his breakout novel, first published in 1991, narrated by ‘Andy’ about his life with his two friends Dag and Clare, in Coachella Valley, Southern California.

This is a great introduction to Coupland’s writing by a friend, Andrew Tate (no, NOT that Andrew Tate).

For more information about Coupland’s extraordinarily diverse work, check out his official website.

Written for the soundtrack of Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2023), What Was I Made For? stormed up the charts around the world, including reaching No. 1 in Australia, UK and Ireland. It won both a Grammy and an Oscar the following year.

Billie Eilish shares writing credits for the song with her brother and frequent collaborator, Finneas O’Connell. She described the process like this:

I did not think about myself once in the writing process. I was purely inspired by this movie and this character and the way I thought she would feel, and wrote about that. And then, over the next couple days, I was listening and I was like, girl, how did this … honestly, and I really don’t mean this to come off a conceited way at all, but I do this thing where I make stuff that I don’t even know is … like I’m writing for myself and I don’t even know it. (from Billboard archive)

This is the performance at the Oscars mentioned in the discussion.

Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) was a Spanish painter working at the height of the counter-Reformation. He was sometimes nicknamed the “Spanish Caravaggio” because of their shared love of the chiaroscuro (light/dark) style, although it is unfair to see him solely in terms of the Italian painter’s legacy from the generation before.

There is debate about the details, but it is likely that the character of St Luke (who was known not as an artist but as one of the New Testament evangelists) is in fact a self-portrait.

Another of his most beloved works is Agnus Dei (The Lamb of God) painted at roughly the same time. Both can be seen in Madrid’s Prado Museum.

The Star Wars universe has ‘inspired’ the creation of a number of duds. But the 3 of us are in total agreement that Andor is not one of them.

For all the hokum of creating entire cultures and religious backstories for different planets (invariably with healthy dollops of allusions and resonance from Classical Greece and Rome), Andor feels much more serious and edgy. It is political and personal, capturing a genuine sense of jeopardy. What’s more it has quite the case, including the array of British actors as imperial commanders (due largely since it’s filmed at Pinewood Studios west of London).

Plus as veteran actor Ian Ogilvy apparently once said when asked why baddies are always Brits, “we’re the only ones who don’t mind.” Probably no longer true, but it clearly is in the Star Wars universe.

The Andor series (2nd is coming in April) is the backstory to the movie Rogue One, which itself is a prequel to Star Wars I/IV A New Hope), narrating the means and cost of capturing the plans for the Death Star.

• The music of Aqualung (Matthew Nicholas Hales)

• Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees (from The Bends, 1995)

• The work of the French old master Claude Lorrain.

Also mentioned in passing:

• Mitchell & Webb’s classic sketch Are we the baddies?
• Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)

The Greatest Night in Pop is a Netflix documentary (2024, dir by Bao Nguyen) about the single night during which the charity single We Are The World was recorded. The song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian.

The contributors included Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Tina Turner and Diana Ross (amongst others!).

The background to it was the Ethiopian Famine of 1983-85 which left perhaps 2.5 million dead. This American single was inspired by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas released 4 months before.

R. S. Thomas (1913-2000) was described by one critic as ‘the finest living Welsh poet writing in English’. An ordained minister in the anglican Church in Wales, he was passionate about Wales and the Welsh language. Despite that, most of his published verse was in English.

The Bright Field is one of his most beloved poems, written in 1975. Here is a clip of Thomas reading it himself.

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was an American painter from New York, the city which became as much his subject as it was the backdrop to his work. He often painted on a grand scale, evoking the dehumanising effects of the urban landscape.

Nighthawks is one of his most famous paintings, painted in 1942.

In response to a query on loneliness and emptiness in the painting, Hopper outlined that he “didn’t see it as particularly lonely”. He said, “Unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.” (Kuh, Katherine (1962). The Artist’s Voice: Talks With Seventeen Artists, Harper & Row. p. 134.)

Go here for more on The Art Institute of Chicago

Bible Passages alluded to in The Bright Field:

The Eisteddfod festival in Wales (mentioned by Sophie)