CAMP Radio Show #5

Little sweetheart, the fifth edition of our show for France’s CAMP Radio aired yesterday and is now up, archived, on their MixCloud page. The link is here. 

As ever, it’s a monthly hour of experimental and ambient music, field recordings and otherness. And also, as ever - it’s all for you! 

With all my love…

On Wings, of the Wind

Little sweetheart, we’re going back over the footage now of the documentary we shot that I was telling you about.

All of it is done on location and meant to evoke the nature of a quiet conversation and as it was recorded that way - quietly, with the ambient sounds of the city and other environs all around - Sylvia had the idea to add subtitles and close captioning (in both English and French). We’re working on that now, working ahead. A few episodes are already up but we’re working on ones that won’t be aired until next month.

The last one, part six, was filmed in Central Park. We went up to the north of the park to The Ravine, where I had never been, and saw the little waterfalls there and the big green pond they call “The Pool”. It went well but we tried a second time a little farther south by The Great Lawn and the light was really nice there, so I think that one is the keeper. The other one will probably be an “extra” after all six parts have been published.

Anyway, like I said, we both felt so close to you during all of this and maybe especially so on this day because I was talking about you a lot. And we didn’t even notice this until now, but listening to playback there is a moment where I’m talking about how I feel that the there of us, you, myself and Sylvia, almost become like one voice during the album, and this incredibly mysterious gust of wind just appears, like underscoring all of that as I say it and then ascends.

How well I know that you near, my little sweetheart. How blest I am. How very much I love you. Forever. Forever.

Review from France...

There’s a beautiful review this morning, little sweetheart, of both the 2018 albums - Sometimes in Dreams and Til Morning Is Nigh -  from France. Citing you by name, of course, and some of the songs most bound up in your beautiful spirit, they call the new album “Dreamlike, luminous and enchanting” and have much to say about Sometimes, as well. I’m posting the full link in French below but here’s a translated excerpt:

“We couldn't talk about 2018 without mentioning Bipolar Explorer. The New York dreampop/shoegaze duo continues to deliver. Once again, the couple Summer Serafin (spoken word, vocals) and Michael Serafin-Wells (guitar, bass, percussion, tape loops, vocals, spoken word) send the listener into a parallel yet reassuring universe with Sometimes In Dreams. With this double album, Bipolar Explorer bring us with them diving into their intimacy in the most solemn and purest way possible.  Alternating between Summer Serafin's spoken word passages and Michael Serafin-Wells's emotional flights of lyricism, the New York duo astounds us beauty. Both cathartic and luminous, this eighth album of the New York couple puts shoegaze back into a state of grace…”
 - Les Oreilles Curieuses

As ever, my little sweetheart, it’s all for you. All for you, my gorgeous girl.




Les Oreilles Curieuses full review

Continued...

Little sweetheart, these last eight weeks have been hard. It's exactly eight weeks ago today that, a day before my birthday, I was hit by a car. There have been so many struggles and challenges in the days and weeks since then and I guess you could even say that for not a little while I was almost if not actually dead, because my heart stopped for 10 minutes.

But I'm still here, struggling a bit but grateful, especially to be home with the love of your wonderful parents - and the earthly angel, Sylvia, who very much saved my life along with your dad who was on the phone with her when I collapsed - grateful to be home with your pictures and things around me, grateful for you and your mom and dad and dear Sylvia.

And I want, as best I can, to resume these writings and our music and all our projects dedicated to love and your memory and example, as well as new blessings that I know you have visited upon me, upon us, with celestial guidance.

I may begin with a few things that I had already written down and meant to say and post just before the events and I'll continue as best I can while keeping up my recovery.

I love you with all my heart and soul. 

From Portugal

Little sweetheart, those same nice folks from France who are helping us over there came across a review of Dream Together that we hadn't seen before. It's from Portugal and was published in WAV Magazine just over a year ago! I don't know how we missed it but it's very nice. I'm trying to contact them.

The link to it is here: DREAM TOGETHER review - WAV Magazine (Portugal). 

I'm leaving the translation here below and my favorite parts, of course, are all the parts about you, especially this:

"...The will of a life of two lovers to be forever remembered, Summer Serafin continues to be the inspiration and motive for each newly addictive Bipolar Explorer album..."


Here it is in full, translated:

WAV magazine (Portugal)
Diogo Rocha
March 1, 2017

The year 2016 did not leave good memories to very many people! There are those who say that the best thing that happened in 2016 was that 2017 started. And I'm glad it did. On the first day of the new year, New York's Bipolar Explorer band presented their new album as a late Christmas present. Dream Together is the sixth long-length work of this post-rock group (dreampop, shoegaze, slowcore, minimalist indie or whatever one might want to call it) consisting of Summer Serafin and Michael Serafin-Wells.

After the much acclaimed Of Love and Loss (2013) and Angels (2015), Dream Together is a record that is great to behold in that cold winter, wrapped in blankets, surrounded by heaters and a freshly ground cup of Arabica coffee. For an hour, Bipolar Explorer bring back those characteristic sonics to which their fans are accustomed- loops swirling, guitars stirring feelings, infinitely nostalgic melodies and a voice looking for something that does not belong to this world. The result of this equation is a return to a time to which there is no certainty that one has belonged, but that is quite familiar to us.

The door of this return is opened by "Thirteen", a melody that prepares us to receive the melancholy and to understand that love does not always have a happy ending. This perception is heard painfully in "Not Alone", “With no arms to hold me / Let your spirit enfold me / I'm not alone”. But soon in "Dream 3", is clear the will of a life of two lovers to be forever remembered, "The precious spell and time will tell / The world the tale / How I'm in love".

Although passed from this life after a tragic accident, Summer Serafin continues to be the inspiration and motive for each newly addictive Bipolar Explorer album. In "Listen", Michael Serafin-Wells declares all his intentions, "Rest now / In the garden of ours /And I’ll be along / To reverse every wrong / In just a little while / I'll meet you there”. 

And do not forget that Summer's longing will only grow, always supported by the love that still nourishes her - “So deep inside my heart / Where you’ll remain and always burn / The most beautiful spirit /Ascension! / The miracle made true / Blessed, precious treasure / I need you more than ever ", is cried in “To The Other Half Of The Sky ".

With instrumental pauses that make us hold our breath and delve deeper into nostalgia, "Fireflies" and "Along These Lines" enrich this volume and testament of love.

Instrumentally, Dream Together does not present itself in a significantly different way than those works preceded by the band. In fact, everything we hear on this new album is already within the sonic signature of these New Yorkers. The highlight here is the emotional punch we are offered. Punching and kicking we are tackled throughout the album. Whenever a new track starts, it is as if we rise from the ground simply to fall again and only at the end do we realize the hematomas and hemorrhages all over the body. It's only when it's over that, with puffy eyes and a tight heart, we lower the lid of the computer, put down the cup of coffee and let out a breath of relief: oh my god!

The Reason, My Conscience, You

Little sweetheart, colleagues in France are helping the band up our profile a little bit. A pair of them are also Wikipedia editors/contributors and last night they published a page for the band.

It's here: Bipolar Explorer Wikipedia page. 

I sent it to your dad right away because he loves Wikipedia. Remember how you told me in your first Christmas letter to me that he would be "reading aloud shocking statistics about religion or politics"?

Anyway, it was very nice of our new French friends to get everything together and approved and published on the site and my favorite part is that it includes what I said to Indiemusic about you being the heart and conscience of the band, my work and life. It's this:  

"All of this is entirely for her. I often say that our music, each album, is of, for and about her. It’s my way of telling people about her and talking to her myself. That’s the “for’ and “about” parts of the equation. And Summer remains an integral part of the band - not only as its inspiration but, because I have lots of her isolated vocals from other recording sessions - as her voice, both spoken and singing, graces each record. I’ll write songs and fly in her voice. Summer isn’t the main reason BPX goes on, she’s the only reason. She is the reason. And I think I can trust that I’m doing things for the right reason if I always know the reason for it is her. Not out of any ambition other than to honor and conjure her. She’s my conscience. "