This past month Psychogeographic Review has been reading:
Ron Silliman – Under Albany (2004)
Ron Silliman is one of America’s greatest living poets and a founder of the language poetry school. His best known poem, Albany, is a hundred-sentence autobiography taking in his family background and political activism. It is a difficult poem written in a non-linear form which confounds at first reading, but continues to reward with each rereading. Under Albany is a much later companion volume which provides a close reading of the poem and successfully paints a picture of some its context and back story.
Rachel Lichtenstein – Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden (2013)
Rachel Lichtenstein is a writer and artist. She co-wrote Rodinsky’s Room with Iain Sinclair and is currently part way through a trilogy of London books. This work explores the diamond trade of London’s Hatton Garden and, as with her other books, her detailed, meticulous research is evident throughout. However, this is a human story, a story peopled largely by Jewish émigrés escaping persecution in Eastern Europe. Lichtenstein tells their story with compassion and conviction.
W.G Sebald – A Place in the Country (2013)
Despite his passing in 2001, Sebald’s reputation seems to grow each year. This new work was assembled from a number of previous pieces newly-translated by Jo Catling. A Place in the Country comprises several travel pieces and six appreciations of writers and artists who influenced the author. Sebald’s writing is unique and idiosyncratic and it is easy to why he is one of the English-speaking world’s favourite European writers.
Meanwhile, we were listening to:
Josephine Foster – Graphic as a Star (2012)
Foster’s 26 songs on this album are based on the poems of Emily Dickinson, which places her firmly in the tradition of very individual female voices. Her singing voice has an unusual trilling quality, not unlike an early Joni Mitchell, and her acoustic guitar arrangements are subtle and tuneful. This is not an album one can lift the odd track from; listen to the whole thing to appreciate its full emotional clout.
Sharron Kraus – Pilgrim Chants and Pastoral Trails (2013)
Sharron Kraus’s sublime new album is available to download or on limited release from Second Language Music at the moment, but anyone who enjoyed her strong folk voice on previous releases will not be disappointed. Kraus continues to operate on the edge between folk and experimental music. This release makes use of field recordings in mid-Wales and the subtle instrumentation gives her songs vitality and depth.
And watching:
Sunshine on Leith – Dexter Fletcher (2013)
Despite the presence of some fine actors, most notably Jane Horrocks and Peter Mullan, I found the narrative of this film a little too sentimental and superficial for my taste. However, the real stars are the joyously bitter-sweet songs of The Proclaimers and Fletcher’s vision of the streets of Edinburgh, particularly when filmed by night.
The Selfish Giant – Clio Barnard (2013)
Clio Barnard’s new film has has echoes of Kes in its setting: a deprived, working-class community in Yorkshire seen through the eyes of a sensitive child. But this film deserves to be watched on its own terms. Barnard succeeds in blending myth and hard reality and the performances she coaxes from the two child leads are extraordinary.
