Tropic of Cancer
2013 · Super 8 · Music Video + Live A/V and tour video loop
‘PLANT LILIES AT MY HEAD’ MUSIC VIDEO
Music written and recorded by Camella Lobo
Studio by Karl O’Connor
Video by Pedro Maia / Assisted by Rita Lino
With Camella Lobo and Rita Lino
Taken from the album RESTLESS IDYLLS
Released September 2013 © Blackest Ever Black
Video premiere at INTERVIEW MAGAZINE, 26.09.2013
“Plant Lilies At My Head” video directed by Pedro Maia was built from the material and light manipulation of super 8 film and based on shootings made by Camella Lobo and Pedro Maia, inspired by the cover artwork of Tropic of Cancer’s forthcoming LP, Restless Idylls (featuring art direction and photography by Silent Editions) released in Blackest Ever Black. Besides the music video the Tropic of Cancer 2013 EU shows will be joined by a long version of that visual work.
About Restless Idylls
“I do not ask for mercy, for understanding, for peace / And in these heavy days I do not ask for release / I do not ask that suffering shall cease.”
Restless Idylls is the debut album by Tropic of Cancer. The album consists of eight new recordings, written and performed by Camella Lobo in Los Angeles, with additional production from Karl O’Connor (Regis) in New York and London. It marks ToC’s return to BEB two years after the three-track EP The Sorrow Of Two Blooms, the label’s third release and one if its most cherished.
More info at – Blackest Ever Black
Tropic of Cancer LIVE A/V – Berghain / 24.09.2013
* this is only pic I found online due Berghain restrictions to take pics and videos.
TEXTURES & LINES
2021-2019 · Live AV · 16mm transfered to digital
Drumming GP + Joana Gama, Luís Fernandes & Pedro Maia
From 16mm analogue manipulation, Pedro Maia approaches the film projections from a point of view of the border, the specific interest for the material and physical qualities of the medium, analysing the intrinsic beauty of its patina, capable of capturing time while also ageing as an object. From these premises, Pedro Maia seeks the relations of cinema as a language, comparing it with other modern languages, from the experimentation in modern painting to the expanded cinema and its relation with sound.
“Textures & Lines is the result of an invitation addressed to the piano and electronics duo comprising Joana Gama and Luís Fernandes by Drumming GP. Since its 2014 debut album, “Quest”, the duo Joana Gama & Luis Fernandes has been claiming its own sound and aesthetics, displayed in film works and several artistic collaborations. In this concert they join Drumming GP, an ensemble in residence at Teatro Campo Alegre in the scope of the Teatro em Campo Aberto programme, and an international reference when it comes to perform and premiere major classical, but also electronic music percussion repertoire. Based on collective experiments aiming at exploring the textures and ambiences typical of Gama and Fernandes’ music, Drumming GP also takes on the role of “composer” alongside the duo, thus creating a unique sound universe, which is enhanced by Pedro Maia’s visual textures.”
Drumming: Miquel Bernat, João Tiago Dias, João Miguel Braga Simões
Piano: Joana Gama
Eletrónica: Luís Fernandes
Live AV: Pedro Maia
Som: Suse Ribeiro
LIVE
2022/05 · Ilhavo PT
2022/02 · TMC, Covilhã PT
2021/10 · Paços Brandão, Sta Maria da Feira PT
2021/04 · Theatro Circo, Braga PT
2020/11 · Som Riscado Festival, Loule PT
2020/11 · Culturgest, Lisbon PT
2020/06 · Serralves Museum, Porto PT
2019/05 · Teatro Viriato, Viseu PT
2019/04 · Teatro Municipal Rivoli, Porto PT
album artwork
https://holuzam.bandcamp.com/album/textures-lines
MONTANHAS AZUIS
2019 · Live AV – 16mm transfered to digital
Montanhas Azuis (Norberto Lobo, Marco Franco, Bruno Pernadas) & Pedro Maia
“In a project that came into being in a now forgotten past, Norberto Lobo and Marco Franco have built their own mountains so that they can fly over them with spontaneous music, made with two open hearts and a whole host of synthesisers. But in this symbolic representation of mountains, three ridges are needed for us to be able to easily recognise them: Bruno Pernadas is therefore the element that was missing for a project that continues the same quest for the unknown in the music of each of them. The project functions as a kind of science fiction laboratory, with eager workers dressed in impeccable uniforms and surrounded by cables connecting them to their many instruments, manipulating and experimenting with unexpected objects. When they decide to show what they can do, they organise themselves on stage into a bluish triangular shape and play each other’s music, showing us environmental songs, interludes with healing powers, cosmic journeys, folk with jazz frills, and low-resolution electronic landscapes, among other surprising ideas that may arise in the meantime. Or ideas with images, for there is also Pedro Maia involved in all of this, the cinematic guide to this adventurous trip.”
LIVE
Curtas Vila do Conde IFF PT 07/2019
Museu de Leiria PT 05/2019
Culturgest Lisbon PT 02/2019
Photos: Vera Marmelo
JACASZEK
CATALOGUE DES ARBRES · Live AV · 2013
Michal Jacaszek’s new project in collaboration with contemporary music ensemble Kwartludium, born out of a fascination with nature and related to Olivier Messiaen’s “Catalogue d’oiseaux”, where birdsong is translated into music. Jacaszek and Kwartludium’s project is created from a blend of field recordings, instrumental improvisations and excerpts from Messiaen’s compositions. Based on the music and inspired by the work of the polish painter Leon Tarasewicz, Pedro Maia presented a visual work based on trees and leaves footage shoot by Michał Jacaszek and Pedro Maia and further handling through an analogue video manipulation.
The live premiere of the album had place at Krakow Philharmonic hall on 20.10.2013 as final show of 11th Unsound Festival. Presented also at Sonic Acts Festival in 2014.
GLIMMER · Super 8 transfered to digial · Live AV + Music Video · 2012
Dare Gale video is based on super 8 shootings made by Michal Jacaszek and Pedro Maia at Porto and results from the work in the dark room using analogue means of light manipulation of the celluloid and superposition film. The super 8 footage and its manipulation of the film is the starting point of a visual exploration resulting from the interplay of vibrant patterns and the effect of light on the objects.
The manipulation transforms the viewing of the the video into a subjective experience, “the eye of the beholder”, and the analogue manipulation leads to imperfections and unexpected results. It starts from the premise of conciliating sensations, uniqueness and unpredictability that begins as an organic entity which can be thus altered by new means.
Dare gale premiere at Pitchfork TV (12.01.2012) – www.pitchfork.com/tv/musicvideos/1731-dare-gale
The premiere of this collaboration was at Unsound Festival (Krakow, Poland) and a music video for his track “Dare Gale”. Also presented in Mutek Festival, Volt Festival and Unsound NY.
Jacaszek’s newest album “Glimmer” will be released on Ghostly International and this work combines electronic elements with harpsichord, bass clarinet and metalphone. The compositions recall baroque chamber music, yet the sound also reveals a connection with the likes of Ben Frost, Collen and Tim Hecker.
16/10/2011 · Unsound Festival · Tempel Synagogue, Krakow, Poland (video by ZFCL)
19/04/0212 · Mutek festival · Montreal, Canada
09/06/2011 · Volt festival · Uppsala, Sweeden
16/10/2011 · Unsound Festival · Tempel Synagogue, Krakow, Poland
27.10.2010 · Mosteiro São Bento da Vitória, Porto, Portugal
CRAIG LEON
NOMMOS · LIVE CINEMA · Super 8 & 16mm transferred to HD · 60’ · 2014
Commission work for Unsound Festival Krakow 2014
Premiere live with Craig Leon & Sinfonietta Cracovia · October 19th 2014, Krakow Poland
New commissioned live visual work for “Nommos”, a collaboration between Pedro Maia (films manipulation and live visuals) and Norwegians Stian Smestad and Frode Fjedingstad (original footage/films) and inspired by the idea of dreamscape and what is dream vision of someone from outer space, a speculation of how the “Nommos” see.
Craig Leon is a celebrated composer and producer. In the 1970s and 80s he was responsible for producing seminal albums from The Ramones, Blondie, Suicide and Richard Hell, among many others. He is also credited with discovering Talking Heads. His debut album “Nommos” initially appeared in 1981, but was recently re-released by RVNG Intl. to critical acclaim. Philip Sherburne described “Nommos” in SPIN as a “an essential record for any fan of minimalist electronic music, analog synthesis, techno primitivism”, while Pitchfork called Leon’s music “the perfect embodiment of new age’s unexpected punk past.” “Nommos” was originally intended to be orchestral, the premiere was presented with players from Poland’s Sinfonietta Cracovia, as well as collaborator Cassell Webb as part of Unsound Festival 2014 at ICE Krakow 19th October 2014.
SANDRO PERRI
Love and Light · Music Video · Super8 transferred to digital · 2011
Premiere at Pitchfork TV – October 2011
“Love and Light” video aims to explore the relation between a musician and filmmaker and their personal reflection on memories. From Pedro Maia’s super 8 home movies archive, this video results from the work in the dark room, using analogue means of light manipulation of the film in attempted to don’t allow us to forget the materials. Here are elusive shadows, the delicate materials turning and strobing and shaking as if to emphasize the fragility of the look, the fragility of these family films compacts have come apart at last, and in their dissolution, in the dying moments of their foreclosure and abandonment, these pictures have been left behind.
Love and Light · music by Sandro Perri
Impossible Spaces · Constellation Records · 2011
www.cstrecords.com/cst085
www.sandroperri.com
“What a work of beauty here, a brilliant pairing of Toronto multi-instrumentalist and super-smooth singer Sandro Perri with Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Maia (whom you may remember from this). Together, the two explore the concept of memory, presenting us with questions we’ve all perhaps considered at one point in our lives: When we see an old photo or film, how does it make us feel and why? How do we make a memory last even longer or enhance our experience with it? And most importantly, what happens when we’re able to manipulate it?
For Maia, the physical evidence of a captured moment in time is the key to understanding our relationship to memory. So he uses super 8 film from his personal archives and exposes the footage to light using analog methods, then edits together a collage of colorful bits like the one you’re about to watch below. This kind of manipulation of the medium itself reminds me of a number of things. First, Stan Brakhage and the film from film (not necessarily a lens) approach. But also someone like DJ Shadow comes to mind, as weird as that might seem (especially considering the content of both the video and song… hang in there with me). This is yet another example of sampling. It is a reappropriation/reusing of something old and static—a cataloged “artificat” that is refigured into a new context, juxtaposed, doubled, colorized, swirled and effected to create something new. When those things are accomplished, it is revealed that in reality, nothing is as static, solid or stationary as we once thought. Rather, everything is “becoming” in a Deleuzian sort of way. “Memory” is now a living, breathing thing where moments of the past no longer exist as being-that-moment only. And though these images are delicate and their fragilities are enhanced with the strobing and the trembling… they are also forever. There is a new moment—a becoming-memory moment. A Frankesteined pastiche of the once dead, filled with the breath of new life to remind us of those things in the past while also presenting us with an obscured, totally new happening in real-time. It is a new perspective that is, while familiar, also alien and of course (especially in this case) very beautiful.
… and the music. Yeah, this song is really good. I’m a sucker for a nice samba feel, and this about the nicest of those I’ve heard in years, all painted in deep, autumnal shades. Tight drumming, lovely guitar, and of course the voice—this kid’s just got it. A gorgeous tone coupled with some cool beat-boxy types of sound effects. The total package is more than worth not even four minutes of your busy day. Click that play button. Full screen, headphones… you know the drill.”
Crawford Philleo
Tome to the Weather Machine
06/10/2011
LCC
BASTET · 2017 · 16mm transfered to HD · Live A/V
The duo LCC (Ana Quiroga and Uge Paneda) performing Bastet, an audio-visual work made with filmmaker Pedro Maia. Built from manipulated 16mm films and inspired by the beliefs and rituals of Bastet, the show takes the audience into unimaginable terrains, with a hypnotic narrative referencing ancient rituals, symbols and natural landscapes.
Barbican London 18.09.2017
Atonal Berlin Festival 17.08.2017
Art-work for the release
LIVE
100% Psych, Madrid SP 04/2018
Barbican, London UK 09/2017
Atonal, Berlin DE 08/2017
Sonar, Barcelona SP 06/2017
MAX LODERBAUER & JACEK SIENKIEWICZ
Ridges · 2015/2016 · 16mm transfered to HD · Vertical Live A/V
video documentation by Theresa Baumgartner & Lukas Feigelfeld
This unique collaboration unites German synthesiser genius Max Loderbauer and Polish experimentalist Jacek Sienkiewicz. Blending harmonic swells and treated synthesised drones with adroitly weighted melodic passages, this new project is a masterclass in expertly crafted ambient music from two of the genre’s leading exponents. This performance features specially developed live visuals from Pedro Maia based on the exploration of the materiality of film.
LIVE
Arma17 Moscow · 12.11.2016
Unsound Festival Krakow · 10.10.2015
Berlin Atonal Festival · 19.08.2015
Max Loderbauer + Jacek Sienkiewicz “Live At Berlin Atonal 2015” (ATONAL003)
sleeve + innersleeve artwork by me based on his visuals for the show
https://berlin-atonal.com/store/loderbauer-sienkiewicz
WRITTEN IN FIRE
2019 · Live AV · 16mm transferred to digital
A collaboration inspired by Janáček’s 2nd string quartet, Intimate Letters. A memorised performance of the piece is followed by a new work created by violinist Rakhi Singh and pioneering electronic musician Vessel (Sebastian Gainsborough). The combination of acoustic instruments and electronics scatters sound to all corners of the darkened hall, enveloping us in a contemporary response to a ground-breaking masterpiece.
Violin: Rakhi Singh
Violin: Simmy Singh
Viola: Ruth Gibson
Cello: Ashok Klouda
Electronics: Sebastian Gainsborough/ Vessel
Live AV: Pedro Maia
LIVE
Kings Place London 11/04/2019
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Cardiff 05/05/2019
Royal Northern College of Music Manchester 07/05/2019
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Glasgow 08/05/2019
Sound Festival Aberdeen Scotland 25/10/2019
The White Hotel Salford Manchester 26/10/2019
Project announcement and tour teaser with India Grove and done in collaboration with Ekaterina Bazhenova-Yamasaki
Svreca
2015 · 16mm & Super 8 transfered to HD · Music Video + live A/V
“Sleepless” – Music Video
taken from Narita EP (Semantica Records 2015)
“Sleepless” is a collaboration between techno producer Svreca, filmmaker Pedro Maia and Japanese painter Yuriko Shimamura. The work they do together deals with the idea of time and travel between Europe and Japan, along with the idea of being sleep deprived.
This work was also presented as live A/V in Japan
at TaicoClub Festival 30.05.2015 and UNIT Tokyo 01.06.2015
Special thanks to FRUE/anitodai
for Studio RGB/XYZ
Series of music videos directed for Studio RGB/XYZ · www.rgbxyz.net
Heatsick – “Snakes & Ladders” / Sounds Of The Universe / Soul Jazz Records / 2013
Directed by Pedro Maia
With Bráulio Bandeira and Seeta Narang
Art Direction/Production Studio RGB/XYZ
Thanks to Sabine Reimaier
Purple – “The Club” / WeDitIt / 2013
Directed by Pedro Maia
Photography by Rita Lino
With Stephanie Pfænder and Purple
Art Direction by Ufuk Inci
Art Assistant by Stella Kaas
Production Studio RGB/XYZ
Special thanks to Voo Store Berlin
Manta – “ID” / Paralaxe Editions / 2014
Directed Pedro Maia & Rita Lino
With Lara Desidéria
Production by Studio RGB/XYZ