Title: REQOIL DISPLACED PEACEOFF
Artist: PUREDEKAM
Label: dOc recordings 005
Format: DVD
Press Release: PURE and DEKAM release strong trilogy of works on dOc’s debut DVD. REQOIL DISPLACED PEACEOFF (catalog number 5) is the first DVD release on Pure´s label dOc, and only the second to feature his collaborative work, in this case with Johnny DeKam, who is well known for his live video performances, and for the creation of the popular software video instrument VDMX.
The DVD consists of three movies with the visuals from DeKam and the music from Pure. Together they tell abstract narratives by improvising, sampling and carefully re-working their recordings into new compositions. Each piece of the trilogy holds its own unique style, and are technically superb. As a whole, the trilogy acts as a strong, dark, complimentary statement.
The first track, REQOIL, derives its name from the root words REQUIEM and OILWELL. It uses a stark monochromatic palette, with videography acquired from an oil drilling field deep in the rural midwest of the US. The footage is heavily treated in ways that make the oil rigs seem to breath through on another, sometimes splitting into two engines that fight or cooperate. These scenes are accompanied by a heavy, static soundtrack using industrial sounds (in their original sense) moving forward slowly to reinforce the machine-like character of this piece. REQOIL is an hommage on the aesthetics of early russian cinema and the sound of early industrial music, with ambiguous thoughts on contemporary issues.
The second track DISPLACED, aims to offset the heaviness of the first piece, drawing upon the repetitive-process atmosphere in their studio during long, summer recording sessions. The images are high contrast, texturally rich, film noir shot in their studio using a small CCD camera. Highly abstract, DISPLACED leaves much space to the viewer´s imagination, an expressionistic contrast to REQOIL. The sound starts off very dense with a wall of standing reverb and waves of low basses. A minimal rhythm slowly finds its way into the foreground leaving the monolithic introduction behind, leading to a filigrain percussion finish.
PEACEOFF, the last track, returns to the topic of industrial facility. This time, instead of oilwells, PEACEOFF works with footage from the inside of a water purification plant. The composition deconstructs the geometric forms within the plant, surrounded by strong, `safety` colors. PEACEOFF reminds you of architectural documentary and biological terror, hectically synchronized with the movements of the soundtrack – a very chaotic, sometimes quite violent track where the only sound source was a single breakcore drumloop provided by the Rennes-based record label PEACEOFF. The decimation of these few seconds of intro material into an alternating mix of chaotic randomized beats and standing tones crescendos when both sound and image reaches a powerful finale of movement, color and form.This DVD is the result of Pure and deKam’s teamwork initiated by the French association “Meeting”, a joint effort between Rennes’ College of Art, the Visual Arts department of Rennes University and le Collectif Jardin Moderne, who hosted a residency for the two artists in summer of 2003.
Pure is currently living in Vienna. Besides caring for his own label dOc, he has released on several other labels like Mego, Staalplaat and Praxis. After having released around 20 vinyls since the beginning of the 90s which were deleted for years recent CD releases from 2003 made all the different projects available again.
Johnny Dekam is an video artist based in upstate New York. He is a member of DYAD, the critically acclaimed live project with Swiss artist Jasch, He frequently performs both solo and as a VJ for major acts. DeKam is the founder and principal architect behind VIDVOX, purveyors of fine video software. He has recently moved on from VIDVOX to focus on new projects at the intersection of video art, research and performance.