The loveable eccentric: Cosmo Sheldrake

I haven’t really been keeping up with my music lately because of looming university finals, but I allowed myself a little breather today and fell in love with Cosmo Sheldrake. I’ve heard one or two of his songs before but they never really grabbed me. If I’m being honest I thought he was a little odd and not in the cool, trendy way but odd as in peculiar. But I was wrong. He is odd (the name sort of says it all) but that’s  part of the charm and actually he really couldn’t be any cooler. His music is all about experimentation with the environment (in one of my favourite videos he chases after a beetle with some sort of sound device), playing with objects and space to produce unusual and unique sounds. ‘Rich’ featuring Andrea Vargas starts off with what sounds like a cat purring… It keeps you on your toes and the music is just great. Think banjos, didgeridoos, whistles, bongos, keyboards, improv vocals., robots, beetles, washing machines. You know, that sort of vibe.

Anyway, check him out. He’s set to release a debut single in April, 2014 and he’s just all round a pretty inspirational guy.

Here’s a vid of the cat purring song, performed live in a pig sty:

And ‘Prefusify’ performed live in a laundrette:

 

 

Zack Seckler’s Aerial Abstracts

After spending a good 2 hours this afternoon watching a slideshow of photographs from my mother and her partner’s trip to Africa, you’d imagine I’d had my fill of landscapes, but then I came across Zack Seckler.

Flicking through Seckler’s online portfolio I have to admit is a bit disappointing; some of the photos are impressive, others amusing, but a lot are, I hate to say it, just a bit too “American”. When I say “American”, I’m not taking a swipe at the nation’s identity, what I mean is it’s all a bit too commercial and smiley for my liking. Too staged, too bright, too happy… Seckler’s Aerial Abstracts, on the other hand, are utterly entrancing. The landscapes are simultaneously warped and enhanced from a height to form beautiful, vibrant patterns. Looking at his photographs is like flying over exotic, magical lands – it’s an incredibly humbling and awe inspiring experience. The vastness of the landscapes is intensified by the absence of human life and the scale of the few animals dotted across the frame…

Seckler’s at his best when people are left out of it, but then again maybe landscapes are too.

To see the full series head over to Seckler’s website: http://www.zackseckler.com/about