email from Nathan (Item 8)

Recently,

I (finally) saw the UVA show Synchronicity at 180 Strand last night. It’s extremely well-made work, thick with immersive atmosphere and perhaps pleasingly thin on unsubtle narratives like we’ve just talked about. That said, holistically the works don’t congeal into the Jungian thesis that it claims to embody; the show’s claim to exhibit “meaningful coincidences that cannot be causally linked or adequately explained by scientific rationality alone” feels ironically like a rationalisation. Nevertheless, individually each of the works is compelling, and refreshing in its independence of its media. You won’t find a single 16:9 monitor or a 4k video projector or Yamaha HS10, you’ll find media tailored to its function within its space, made entirely out of materials that feel bespoke.

I also saw Saltburn recently and really enjoyed it. I reckon chiefly because I knew absolutely nothing about it ahead of time, I hadn’t seen the trailer or read any reviews, and that seemed to be to my benefit. If the film’s divisive, it seems to be over its inability to fulfil whatever expectations much of the audience walked in with: a tale of working-class revenge on upper-class elitism, or a shocking and violent psychological thriller. It’s neither of these things; to me it felt extremely signposted as a weird dark comedy and I laughed through all of it.

I’ve listened to that Björk/Rosalía song more times in the past month than I listened to anything that appeared in my Spotify Wrapped in 2023. I keep listening to Dark Star by the sleepover disaster just for the outrageous guitar solo. It’s embarrassing that the album is called Albion but the last two tracks of this new album from the guy who used to be in Midlake are nice, happily accepting recommendations for more pastiche pseudo folk if you have them.

from Nathan