Sheppee's Hidden Partition Cuts the Audiovisual Album into a Distinctive Shape
Hidden Partition–an innovative audiovisual album produced by motion-graphic designer Ben Sheppee–is the latest DVD release from the Lightrhythm Visuals label. Top IDM and ambient producers provide a lush musical canopy for Sheppee's animations, and a host of international artists contribute visual "remixes" of his compositions. Combining a consistent, modern soundtrack with museum-caliber images, Hidden Partition is a must have for the audiophile, VJ and art collector.
Sheppee's work explores a clean, rendered sub-genre developing in the VJ scene. The music videos lean toward minimalist abstraction, creating worlds where the elemental play of structure, light, and icon compete for the leading role. Varying approaches yield a range of moods from the sharply timed animation of "Xenon" to the ambient lightscapes of "Interlomas" and "Gigaheart".
A key element of Hidden Partition is its collaborative concept: Sheppee shared his source files with top visual performers and designers around the world. Each VJ then remixed the elements of one track, arranging and interpreting the composition in their own style. The results are included as alternate DVD angles.
The release promises to bring a lot of attention to the 2-year old Lightrhythm Visuals label. Their innovative (but silent) VJ Single Compilations, which came out on DVD earlier this year, offer world audiences a vivid window into San Francisco's enviable VJ subculture. Giving VJs the opportunity to use these "singles" in their own shows made Lightrhythm a widely recognized catalyst for the flow of visuals between scenes in different cities.
Now, Hidden Partition firmly establishes Lightrhythm as an international force in the audiovisual album arena. "Ben is really pushing the VJ as DJ metaphor on this release." says Jon Schwark, co-founder of Lightrhythm,. "It has 11 works of art, with remixes for the VJ. It's also a compilation of truly modern music that has a style and succeeds as an album in its own right. Hidden Partition is in a position to be a landmark audiovisual moment–the first disc that both DJs and VJs actually want to own and play."
Music by UK producers Bedouin Ascent (No Immortal Records) and Blockhead (Ninjatune) expand on the tone set by artists from San Francisco's Lowpro Lounge label and a two memorable tracks from Konstrukt's Damiak. Definitely not a dance floor knockout, but perfect for DJs cultivating a more cerebral experience. Styles venture from warm melodic-glitch to ambient bordering on classical.
Visual Remix artists D:Fuse, and *Spark (UK), and VJ Shinji (Japan) hold their own next to top American acts like VJ V2 (V2 Labs), VJ Culture (of Dimension7) and Scott Pagano (curator of the Reline DVD Series). Even the cover art is the result of a collaborative project with design group SE3D, extending the remix concept. All said, more than twenty artists contributed dozens of DVD angles to this "solo" album, with even more material hidden in bonus areas awaiting discovery.
Ben Sheppee
Originally from London, Sheppee currently lives in San Francisco and performs/exhibits internationally. His latest plan: a move to Tokyo in 2005. He was released on 6 DVDs in 2004, and has appeared in DJ magazine, IDN, Remix, BPM, and Earplug. He has been commissioned by Addictive TV for work on National Television, and his performance set recently opened the Hollywood Independent Film Festival, and the San Francisco ResFest. He also teaches digital imaging at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.
Product release 11.23.04 – Preview copies are available 10.28.04.
Available from http://www.microcinema.com and other locations online.
http://www.hiddenpartition.com - Samples from the album
http://www.lightrhythmvisuals.com - Label on which the album is released
hpcontact@lightrhythmvisuals.com - for more information and preview DVDs
vj visualizacion Show Digital Video and Visual Graphics
