The Knife is keen in their musical engineering. They seem aware--more aware, to me, than many other music engineers, at least on a deliberate/conscious level--that music is not comprised solely by tone and rhythm. That there is a matrix of sonic phenomena that creates a musical experience for listeners. That there, too, is texture (in more musical terms, 'timbre') that not only operates on the plane of aesthetic aural pleasure, but also on an emotional and associative plane. Further, that they participate in a tradition of music making and, that though there are limitations of deviation from that tradition, that there are also destinations on the fringe of these traditions, which are seldom visited and/or mingled. Since I've already used the word "matrix," let me borrow a phrase from the film: "You have to see it to understand." Or in this case, listen to it. Here a new song, for which I thank my Facebook newsfeed, I stumbled upon.
Colouring of Pigeons by The Knife
Once upon a time, I made a music video using footage from Jean Genet's Un Chant d'Amour, a silent film on which I wrote my senior thesis. For reasons still mysterious to me, The Knife's Silent Shout made me think of that film.
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