‘Opened Close’ is taken from an audiovisual collaboration with her wife and creative partner, Natalia Podgórska.
“Grotto is a bit like if King Lear had been a millennial soap opera with a happy ending,” says object blue of her latest release for London label TT, a five-track, audiovisual EP that sees the producer teaming up with her wife and creative partner, artist and photographer Natalia Podgórska. “Grotto is a stage,” blue continues. “It’s not a soundtrack to an existing play, but whilst creating it I was thinking about the space we move in, the characters we play, the dialogues that happen.”
Ahead of the premiere of this unique virtual performance, which takes place tonight at 19:00 GMT on TT’s Twitch channel, blue and Podgórska have shared an excerpt featuring a live rendition of the project’s anthemic opener, Opened Close. blue corrals an ecstatic, stabbing synth line as Podgórska conjures a fantastical digital environment around her. “The video is half inspired by object blue’s interest in medieval art and theatre, half inspired by imaginary friends/characters we make up to cope with our home situation (which is what Grotto is about),” she explains.
“I made them take the form of fairytale creatures and circus creatures that are morally ambiguous,” Podgórska continues, “they’re there to observe your struggle and serve as a proxy of your emotions. You’re not supposed to be scared of them, but they’re not there to help you in your fight.” It’s this creative approach to emotional articulation that runs deep throughout the project: “it’s me sublimating my difficult relationship with the home,” says blue of Grotto.
“I could only envision ‘Procession of Healers’ because I survived this weird drama and I can look at it from a distance, as I am happy now. I come to this theme time and time again, but especially now because we’ve all been quarantined in our homes, and we’ve experienced the erosion of spacial boundary in our lives.”
Grotto is out now on TT. Tune in to TT’s Twitch channel at 19:00 GMT for the premiere of the virtual performance.
For more information about object blue and her music you can follow her on Instagram. For more information about Natalia Podgórska and her work, you can visit her website and follow her on Instagram.
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