Music Blog

In an age of countless pixel-perfect Shrek sequels and spinoffs, many of us turn to hand animated stop-motion films, such as Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox or Laika's Coraline, for some relief from the digital onslaught, for a human touch.

But long before even Will Vinton's Claymation or the beloved Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, artists began exploring the new medium of film's ability to give life to inanimate objects through shooting series of individual frames. Modern stop-motion animators usually have software alongside the camera to help check their motion, or even compare it to a live-motion master. Pioneers in the field, however, had to rely solely on calipers for measurement, if they didn't simply do it freehand.

It is in the vein of the early animators that Rachel Blumberg created the video for Tom Hagerman's song "Granny Old Wound". She has particularly taken inspiration from Eastern European animators, such as Jiri Trunka, Ladislaw Stairwicz and Jan Svankmajer, whose 1988 Lewis Carroll free adaptation Alice she fell in love with in college.

About three years ago, Blumberg made her first stop-animated experiment, using garage sale antiques similar to those she uses in making her dioramas. Denver-based multi-instrumentalist and DeVotchKa member Tom Hagerman was in town at the time, recording with M. Ward, and helped Blumberg by laying down violin tracks on the short's accompanying soundtrack. 

When prepping the release of his sophomore album, Idle Creatures, Hagerman immediately thought of Blumberg to create a video for its song "Granny Old Wound". For two days and two late nights in December, she gathered an assortment of found objects from her home and organic materials from her neighborhood, and created a series of improvised, "herky-jerky" impressionistic scenes, reacting to the song's alternating emotions, its increasingly layered instrumentation, and its frenetic feel.

 

 

 

Blumberg is also a painter, musician and music teacher. Her life of late has been largely focused on her paintings, but she is now broadening her focus again to her other pursuits.

She has a solo music project known as Arch Cape, which hasn't released any recordings yet. However, Rob Jones of Jealous Butcher Records has offered to release her debut, along with giving her a deadline to complete it. She will be finishing the album this spring.

On the film front, Blumberg has lots of ideas for stop-animated music videos. She is hoping to gather experience and a portfolio, and is open to offers from other musicians to give their songs treatments. 

Her broader goal is to, within about five years, complete a feature-length film based on the life of her grandfather Hyman Reznick, a famous Jewish songwriter from Chicago. She is in the process of gathering research, as well as collecting oral histories on Reznick from family members. She plans on reinterpreting his music with help from friends, including M. Ward and Gillian Welch. How the Fire Fell director Edward P. Davee has agreed to help make the film, which will be a mix of live and stop-motion. 

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