Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg is best known as a member of Toronto experimental rock troupe Absolutely Free and for collaborating with Alvvays, Fucked Up and U.S. Girls. Now he's stepping out on his own for a new album. Music for 7 Paintings, the debut album from Fisher-Rozenberg as Memory Pearl, is due May 15 via Idée Fixe Records.
The album's seven tracks fit with the ambient electronica of luminaries like Steve Reich and Brian Eno, and each of the record's seven tracks was inspired by a different painting that Fisher-Rozenberg saw on a trip to art galleries throughout North America, including works by Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell and Franz Kline. The album was also informed by Fisher-Rozenberg's recent graduate studies in music therapy and work at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
The album announcement also comes with a video for album cut "Number 28, 1950," inspired by Pollock's painting of the same name. The video clip was created by Fisher-Rozenberg and filmmaker Michael Pivar, and features an older man sitting on a block in an empty gallery and staring at the camera, almost as if he were looking at the painting — or perhaps as if he were the work of art himself.
Says Fisher-Rozenberg in a statement, "Pivar and I wanted to make a series of videos that captured the intimacy between a person and a painting. Honest voyeuristic portraits that highlight a person's inner life — letting their eyes, facial gestures and body language weave together a narrative. It's fascinating how a fixed image can orchestrate in us a range of feelings, memories, thoughts."
He adds, in reference to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, "When we made this series, we could never have imagined they'd be released in a time of such isolation. Right now, we're all spending a lot of time living out the feels through a sedentary, isolated gaze."
Check out the Music for 7 Paintings tracklist below. Listen to "Number 28, 1950" on music streaming services or by watching the video below.
Music for 7 Paintings:
1. Natural Answer, 1976
2. Number 28, 1950
3. Untitled #17, 1958
4. Untitled, 1948
5. Sunflower, 1969
6. Red and Brown Scene, 1961
7. Cupola, 1958-1960
The album's seven tracks fit with the ambient electronica of luminaries like Steve Reich and Brian Eno, and each of the record's seven tracks was inspired by a different painting that Fisher-Rozenberg saw on a trip to art galleries throughout North America, including works by Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell and Franz Kline. The album was also informed by Fisher-Rozenberg's recent graduate studies in music therapy and work at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
The album announcement also comes with a video for album cut "Number 28, 1950," inspired by Pollock's painting of the same name. The video clip was created by Fisher-Rozenberg and filmmaker Michael Pivar, and features an older man sitting on a block in an empty gallery and staring at the camera, almost as if he were looking at the painting — or perhaps as if he were the work of art himself.
Says Fisher-Rozenberg in a statement, "Pivar and I wanted to make a series of videos that captured the intimacy between a person and a painting. Honest voyeuristic portraits that highlight a person's inner life — letting their eyes, facial gestures and body language weave together a narrative. It's fascinating how a fixed image can orchestrate in us a range of feelings, memories, thoughts."
He adds, in reference to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, "When we made this series, we could never have imagined they'd be released in a time of such isolation. Right now, we're all spending a lot of time living out the feels through a sedentary, isolated gaze."
Check out the Music for 7 Paintings tracklist below. Listen to "Number 28, 1950" on music streaming services or by watching the video below.
Music for 7 Paintings:
1. Natural Answer, 1976
2. Number 28, 1950
3. Untitled #17, 1958
4. Untitled, 1948
5. Sunflower, 1969
6. Red and Brown Scene, 1961
7. Cupola, 1958-1960
