Fan Death name mystery is solved!

As I was hoping, after my yesterday's article about Fan Death- Marta was so kind to tell me the answer to my question- here's what she said:

"And yes, we are named after the urban myth, mainly because Dandi thought it was such a bizzare concept!
Apparently, some fans in South Korea have built-in timers that switches them off automatically, due to this fear of suffication."

The fellowship of Pebelle part XIII: Urban legends from Canada with FAN DEATH

Today we travel to Canada, where following ladies come from:



I first stumbled upon one of the girls through my LA based friend and producer Jason- he released the 2nd Album of her former band "Dandi Wind", which I immediately liked- Dandilion Wind Opaine has a unique and catchy voice- which also defines the style of the music she's involved with (in my opinion).
While I listened to the Dandi Wind Albums I also watched some of her videos and footages, as I reconigzed: she's a total tights girl- having the figurine of a gymnast she uniis seen in short skirts, dresses or hot pants with unique tights.
I did the maths and saw that we would be a good match- as I got in touch with her in 2009 she told me about her new band project Fan Death and so we worked out a plan to send both of the involved ladies hosiery.
Marta, the second in command is the mastermind of the synths- together they are such a nice combination that sends men all over the world into daydreaming sessions.



The Guardian newspaper, UK, called them "are a girl duo who recognise that all the best disco records were sung by women, and they sing in the blank, distracted manner of all the finest disco divas".

I forgot asking the ladies a question that burnes in my sould, so maybe I do get an answer after that article. Whenever I google Fan Death there is this urban legend, originating in South Korea, coming up, that tells if an electric fan is left running overnight in a closed room it can cause the death of those inside.
I'd love to know if that was the basis of calling this band Fan Death? And why?

They're music is electrifying and acccording to Guardian "The best and the most authentic-sounding: they're not nu rave, or an indie-dance band, or a guitar group using a funk undercarriage. They've got the slightly wonky strings, elegant mid-tempo rhythms and female vocals of disco, recalling the music's golden age – ie. between the release of Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby in 1975 and the ritual burning of disco records in that baseball stadium in Chicago that signalled the death of disco in 1979".

Their debut single "Veronica's Veil" was remixed by no one less but Glam Trash DJ Erol Alkan,w ho recognized the duo's talent and released it through his Phantasy label, and set off an A+R whirlwind. Having signed to the Pharmacy Recording Company, a new imprint of Universal Records they have released their debut album_ " A coin for the well", wich you can order on Amazon- link here - including the tracks 1. Reunited 2. Cannibal 3. Power Surge 4. Soon 5. The Son will Rise

Here's the beautiful video of Reunited:



Touring with bands such as "Hercules and Love Affair" or "Vampire weekend" shows us just how much they're on the way to become really big.

The other release that is out so far and containing a lot more of their song material is "Womb of dreams" is full of 12 new tracks and came out in August last year.

This include their debut single "Veronica's veil"- which is refers to the Catholic relic which, according to legend, belonged to Veronica from Jerusalem who encountered Jesus on the way to Calvary and wiped the sweat from his face, leaving an imprint of his image on her veil.
Here's the video:



Soon after our agreement I already spotted the first images of Fan Death performing in London- Dandi wearing a brilliant combination of sequined Hot Pants, Vintage boots, Pebelle tights and a wonderful Hippie style blouse- this style is so her's and I was happy how she pulled off those tights!















































I am sure you know these images too well, they were already used as I posted about who did them, Mr. Richard Kelly. Find the post about him on here:

http://pebelle.blogspot.com/2011/02/fellowship-of-pebelle-part-x-pick-your.html

In the meantime I was pleased to recieve some nice home made images of the girl showing off her Pebelle leggings with their beloved animals- images I do love to recieve, as they're authentic and show how different a garment can look on each person all over the world..

Dandi, with her dog Edie:
























And Marta (now dark) with her beloved cats Luna & River Phoenix:
























Fan Death obviously have a homepage- it's worthing having a look on that page as it features two limited T-Shirts with photography by Dandi.
You can choose between these two designs:
















































So check them out- on www.fan-death.com

For more infos, listening or just to simply look at tour dates just go to their Myspace

I finish this one with another Guardian Quote: "File next to: Glass Candy, Baccara, Cerrone, Hercules & Love Affair."

BERLIN tomorrow!! Mary Ocher record release

Can u remember the little story I did on talented singer/songwriter Mary Ocher from Berlin?

If not, go back, re-read and come back to that article later on:
http://pebelle.blogspot.com/2011/01/fellowship-of-pebelle-part-iv-cyber.html

So, TOMORROW is the day- if you live in Berlin or close by you should get up and go out!
And where to?

To the Record release part of "WAR TIMES", the first album of Mary Ocher, coming out
tomorrow- at HBC, Berlin!



here's a link to the Event page on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181374895237507


And to get a glimpse of what's gonna await you, three of her newest videos!
Enjoy!

The fellowship of Pebelle part X: Pick your pic with Richard Kelly

Have you ever heard of the world of horsebones?
No? Well, you will, after that post. And if you are through with it, follow this man's photographical universe and it will change the way you see your everyday surrounding.
At least it worked like that with me.

Before I start, I have to mention that during my research for this blog,I skipped through all his images: on his homepage, his blog, his Flickr and so on. I had a hard time choosing pics for this blog post, I might have to ask him if I am allowed to do a wallpaper full of his images.

Okay, let's start and let you know who I am talking about:

Richard Kelly, a man I met (shall I mention it was online, risking to cause a yawn?) on my hunt after certain images I needed for my work.
Our paths crossed in a fun way: two years ago, as the wonderful ladies of Fan Death got a couple Pebelle tights for their tour.



So, at some point, I caught a glimpse from a Polaroid taken of them, with Dandi, the lead singer wearing my tights. But it wasn't easy to hunt the man down, that did the image. The girls were still on tour and hard to get hold of. All they remembered was a guy taking pics of them backstage- but in the end I found him and asked him if I could have one.
Richard was so nice to send me a whole bunch of images within an instant and somehow we stayed in touch.



The next thing I remember was me going through a phase, that every artist has at some point- it's the phase were you think about giving up what you're doing.
Somehow I must have mentioned it to him, a week later I had a little parcel in my post box with Steve Martin's autobiography. Born standing up. The title says it all.

Included in the parcel was a nice note, telling me that it's inpsiring as he never gave up and see what happened.

So I read the book and yes, it helped me continue. A much bigger motivation to just stick to what you're good at is Richard's history:

He developed an interest for photography after leaving school with no qualifications. At 16 he went to work for a local newspaper as a mail room boy.
From there he got to meet the staff photographers. From that point on, Richard went to night school to study photography and did a series of related jobs such as lab technician processing film and exhibition printer.
His aim was to save up enough money to do a degree in Documentary and Fine Art photography and so he did. After finishing he assisted various photographers for a number of years before branching out on his own.
Now he's based in London and shoot all sorts, from Advertising to Music.
And through shooting music we met.

Here's him shooting Late of the pier in Japan (one of the many trips Richard did, which had a big effect on him).





Here some other musicians he had in front of his lense.

John Cooper Clarke



Florence and the Machine



Arctic Monkeys



Pete Youknowwho



And last year in October we finally met in person. On my last trip to London Richard took me on a tour through London's east end and altough I thought I know this town pretty well, I realized I have NEVER been to one of the oldest pubs in town, where Jack the Ripper found his victims. So this was pretty educational for me.

Richard also loves to show off his fantastic trained body in Pebelle catsuits.


Original image by Michele Pauty

Looking at his work I do see the difference in his professional work and the every day impressions he gives us on his blog.

To compare you can go to his homepage http://www.rkellyphoto.com and his wonderful blog called THE WORLD OF HORSEBONES
http://theworldofhorsebones.blogspot.com/

I personally love his polaroids:




Or the ones he does on his many trips:



Or his fashion ones:





and so on and so on.....

t

b

c

The fellowship of Pebelle part IX: The fabulous world of signore A. Pasqualini

I meet him at university first, this is ages ago, our ways crossed many times, but whenever I see him I feel good- a man with a golden heart,cool and calm but very deep. And so are his paintings.
Originally from Südtirol Andreas was raised in Trentin. His bilingual upbringing was maybe also a reason to move to Vienna, were he studied painting at the University of applied arts under Johanna Kandl.
Since his degree 2008 his life is crowned with luxury and a jetset lifestyle with no end in sight



Just recently he helped Samstag Shop in Vienna to cause another traffic jam in the road outside the shop with his X-Mas Window painting:



Last year he surprised us all with this huge ( I mean literally huge, what you see on three images here is actually just ONE)- drawing: " Triumph von Bacchus und Ariadne"
It's like an hommage to all his friends and all the people you constantly bump into when you go out in Vienna- for me the picture represents the loop you find yourself in with life- Friends coming, friends going but you always stay, you have to stay with yourself so you can never leave the picture and just witness changes.
I'm within the picture as well- wearing PEBELLE tights- can you spot me?





His artistic developement shows a strong concentration on exploring various environments such as a village communities, night clubs, party life and so on. His view is as pychological as ironic but always based on intense self-monitoring.








Right now Andreas works on his new webpage which will be online soon- so don't forget to come back and click on www.andreaspasqualini.com

As natural born fashionista Andreas always manages to pull off a look that is flammboyant and casual at the same time, it definitely raises an old lady's eyebrow I'm sure, but that's how we like it. So here he is modelling off his Pebelle socks.



One thing I don't want to miss out on:

A while back he was part of an art project called "Blanke Südsee", which performed in Barcelona- Andreas showed himself responsible for giving the blank surface of the t-shirts legs to walk with. See yourself:



Last but not least. If you want to get in touch with this amazing talent while you can still affort it, mail to: kunstreas@hotmail.com

The fellowship of Pebelle part VIII: Shapeshifting in Chicago with Heather & lots of Pure Magical Love

I met Heather online, as it is usual these days, as a friend of us recommended a creative exchange between the two us. Since then we are in contact and so I will tell a little about this big personality. And while I'm doing so I have her Myspace page open and listen to her wonderful music, that uses a lot of organ sounds.



Heather ist a multifaceted artist: a Russian trained ballet dancer, musician, writer and artist. It all came together in one of her projects: "Pure magical love" (PML) - she calls it "my chance to incorporate all of those things" She creates danc choreographies, rituals, and interactive performances all set to the music she composes.

If you wanna listen through the songs she does with PML please go to her Myspace page or check out her Soundcloud page:



http://www.myspace.com/puremagicalloveisreal/music

But to only see "Pure Magical Love" as a band wouldn't be enough, there's so much more to it. Being at a PML performance is like simultaneously being at a show, a dance recital, at church and on drugs - audience members told so themselves when asked about their impression.

Here's Heather's Neo Baroque ballett, that she equiped with my leggings:



plus a video of the show:



Or one of the last preformances: "The Ressurection Ritual" struck my eye-





Back in the 90's when Heather was part of the RIOT GRRL movement, a mainly American phenomenon, that causes a discussion if beeing the 2nd or 3rd wave of feminism - eitherways, it was creating a space where women are in charge or in the majority - including supporting and organizing women in music, readings and much more.
Being in charge of all aspects of the performance is still very important to her and I think it shows throughout her work.

Not long ago she also worked on the successfull band project "The Capricorns":



here's one of my favourite songs of that time:



Recently Heather branched out and started doing "ladies crack aerobics glitter danse auxiliary squad", a get together to workout and dance.
Some of the choreographies they work on will eventually end up in future performances.

Right now Heather focuses on performing and working in Chicago, but eventually she'd like to take her vision on tour ,or even see other chapters of the ladies crack aerobics in other cities... a franchise future business plan?

We can only hope she'll stop by and let us have our own round of Pure Magical Love!

I am happy to have been a creative part in her work with supplying Heather with some of my tie-dye hosiery creations!

The fellowship of Pebelle part VII: Give me a white wall and I give you...Bears:The world of Yotto Bano

It's about time to introduce someone from my surrounding, there are many talented people in Vienna too and I won't miss out on presenting them.




My closest friend for a decade Yotto Bano can mostly be found travelling between Austria and Spain, with amarker or spraypaint in one hand and his skateboard in the other hand. And Barcelona is the city of his heart, there he found the perfect playground to combine his two biggest passions: graffity and bears. And created a niche discipline: the bear graffity.



A very appropriate comment about his work says that " his work is so cute you just want to hug the walls he's painted."



A recent project he did brought him to Vienna- the new store SAMSTAG (by the masterminds of superated) outer wall design- Together with austrian artist Andreas Pasqualini he turned the shop fassade into a tingling world of bears and roman gods, that made a lot of people walking past gasp. I have also witnessed cars slowing down, which is a bonus for the shopowners.




So, after this long ammount of time and creative exchange we have just decided to work on a project together- a collaboration of street and textile arts. And as you can see in his work gallery below, he's already got some experience with textiles anyway.
I will keep you posted on this.

Recently his work got published in the book "Hair", an anthology dedicated to the bearish aspects of visual art alongside with famous other artists of this genre, like Ralf König or Daniel Mainé!

If you wanna check out his blog just go to: http://ursulalala.blogspot.com

And here's a bit more of his art:

Fashion Laws- Leyes De La Moda



Forbidden Fruit- Fruita Prohibida



Magic Carpet Ride - La Alfombra Voladora

The fellowship of Pebelle part VI: Fine, Finer, Finland. The home of Miikka Lommi & Kirsi Kissinger

At the beginning some personal rambling:
I still remember the day I recieved a mail from Miikka Lommi asking me to collaborate on a music video- I was just at the beginning of playing with Pebelle and felt really honoured.
A bit later a big parcel went to Finland- and after the shoot the items were already on sale in a shop in Helsinki. On the way back from the post office the stylist walked past Wundershop with my parcel in his hands. One thing led to another as it usual does.
Since then I'm in touch with Miikka and really hope to visit this lovely country myself one day, to finally meet him in person. My tights even dress one of his lovely children.



Mikka grew up with cameras in the 70's and did his first film at the fascinating age of 3(!) with his dad& brother. Guess the plot? Cowboys and Indians of course!
Doing lots of international music videos Mikka's now concentrating on art and fashion and also does commercials. Here's a fashion video Mikka did, that I love:

Caravan Diamond from miikka lommi on Vimeo.

Recently we worked on a nice project together and did a logo shoot for KennelHelsinki, the production company Miikka has. Sure you recognize one of the images from the Pebelle FB page. Well, here the KennelHelsinki initals, can u glimpse them?

I did the shoot in a collaboration with Emma Bell as you can see from some stylez.

If you want to check on more videos of Mikka's work (which you should), go to see his page on KennelHelsinki: http://www.kennelhelsinki.com/

The video "Anything u want" is by Kississings' voice Kirsi Kissinger and manages to reapeat constantly that she'll do "anything u want" through a whole music video- it provokes a lot of people, but is so much more than you can see. And although Kississings band page on Myspace describes it's sounds as "nonsense words flavoured with hot voice and broken English" it's causing Break YO TV to write a whole article about this song (and video)- naming " a carefully constructed anthem for female empowerment"*.
Here are a few more quotes worth putting them down on here:
"the key to unlocking the profound lyrics are found in the three times she sneaks in this gem:

I do anything I want (x3)
And it has nothing to do with you”

And judging by this cinematic masterpiece, all a gal really wants to do is throw on a pair of tie-dyed legging and a crocheted bodysuit and get together with a few of her best friends to air hump across her apartment. Take that, boys."



"Check it out for yourself if you’re ready to feel confused, empowered, violated, and maybe even a little turned on"

There's not much more to say, see yourself:

Kississings - Anything U Want from miikka lommi on Vimeo.

Kirsi and Miikka have met whilst doing a Maximus vodka commercial together, that even won a national price- and have been speaking about doing a music video together.

"Anything u want" is the result- and the only video that's been done so far.

Kirsi's history is a cool one, she went to a Karaoke club in London, where friends insisted on her singing a Blondie song- Heart of Glass. A music producer in the club liked her performance and as we had it before: one thing led to another. Since then Kississings was already working with electro music producers from Miami, NYC, Paris, Berlin, London, Helsinki....

Here's one more song I really like & the link to her Myspace music page:

Finde weitere Künstler wie Kississings bei Myspace Musik