In 2006, Quentin Stoltzfus was forced to retire Mazarin, the dreamy, strummy Philadelphia-based project he debuted in 1999, due to threats from a litigious Long Island classic-rock band of the same name. If not for that, the new Light Heat album would be a Mazarin album, and could have come out years ago. The catalyst for Light Heat’s debut came from Stoltzfus’ friends and former tourmates the Walkmen. That band, minus singer Hamilton Leithauser, backs Stoltzfus on the LP, although Light Heat itself, like Mazarin, is essentially Stoltzfus and whomever he plays with. Stoltzfus will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on Light Heat.
Stoltzfus: Expanded Cinema is one of the definitive books about experimental cinema ever compiled. While technically it’s a tome exploring all the greatest works of experimental cinema up through 1970, I find it to be essential philosophical reading as well. It was one of the first books to open an in-depth dialogue about the convergence of art, science, philosophy and modern media. It appropriately begins with Buckminster Fuller’s essay “Revolution In Wombland” and then explores many disparate yet finely interconnected concepts and ideas through the story of experimental cinema. It was the first place I was exposed to the concept of synaesthesia: “the simultaneous perception of harmonic opposites.” While actually a legitimate diagnosed neurological condition, I’ve always seen it as a way of describing and informing how music and visual art collide, or perhaps how they can merge into a singular experience. The entire book including the beautiful stills from the films it covers is available to view online here.
Video after the jump.
