It’s clear from almost the get-go that Thorpe’s influences are many and varied. Probably never before or ever again will references to genies escaping bottles, Excalibur being pulled from the stone, and “cosmic arrows” be made in a pop song - and certainly not one on an album that sounds as necessary as this. Take lead single “The Universe Is Always Right”. I’m speaking like it’s quite a brutal process, but it is if you go quite deeply.” I think most of the richness of the words comes from there. It becomes almost carnivorous I need to imbibe it, put it in myself, become it for a while. “So, if you combine those two things, you get obsessive fads, into which I entirely immerse myself in practice, writing or theory. “I’m an obsessive person, but I’m also a person who has fads,” he says. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine him locking himself away in a dank library for months on end, devouring all manner of obscure texts on philosophy, science, and theology, before channeling it all into something he can set his countertenor vocals to.
In Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself,” and Thorpe seems to have been on a grand Vonnegutian journey during the making of these songs. The tunes are charming and understated, but it’s Thorpe’s lyrical themes that prove most beguiling. It’s enough to make one contemplate several aspects of life and existence, albeit set to a slick soundtrack that builds on the sonic palettes of his 2019 debut album Diviner and last year’s Aerial Songs EP. Thorpe’s interests, from science, religion, humanity, the cosmos, sex, temptation, and contemplation of the end of days drip from every pore, filling the record with big questions and the wonder and anxiety of the possibilities of the things we don’t know, poised just out of reach. His second solo album, Moondust for My Diamond - a smoothly enchanting 12-track collection of cerebral and propulsive pop featuring production by Nathan Jenkins (aka Bullion) - is clear evidence of this. As keen to explore the wonders of the minutest chemical reactions in the inner wirings of the mind as he is societal-level shifts in thinking and action, and the vast and unknown wonders of the universe and beyond, the multi-instrumentalist is nothing if not intriguing. The 35-year-old Englishman, formerly of the now-defunct Kendal indie darlings Wild Beasts, is much more of a big-picture kind of guy. John F.Hayden Thorpe isn’t one for pondering the simple things in life. Kennedy, Willy Brandt, Konrad Adenauer in Berlin, Brandenburg Gate
Bologna Dany Keller Galerie, Munich Galerie argus fotokunst, Berlin Galerie Camera Work, Berlin Galerie Eva Poll, Berlin Galerie Brauzeh Five Frankfurt / Main.īarbara McBride (Barbara Pregnant with Shawn)ĭrunk in East Village, NY holding up a car His solo exhibitions since 2000 have included: the Galleria d’Arte Moderna. He has subsequently followed with four other books. His 1975 book Show Me! (German title Zeig Mal!) created a scandal. His style is loosely documentary and deals with Rites of Passage and coming of Age.
The bulk of his photography work is not often seen in the USA. His work has been published in Twen, among other European magazines. Erich Salomon Prize, which is bestowed by the German Photographic Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie). He was a private student of Norman Rockwell. McBride grew up in Chicago, attended the Art Institute of Chicago then the University of Vermont and finally graduated from Syracuse University College of Fine Art in 1953. He is also known as a painter and sculptor. McBride is a photographer of reportage, art photography and book illustration.