Fallen - Ben Lukas Boysen Rework
Video premiere by Headphone Commute
Headphone Commute
“For this project, the Potsdam-based brothers Sebastian and Daniel Selke have invited their friends and musicians to rework tracks from their previous album, HAUSMUSIK (2020), to build upon the shared memories of growing up in East Germany. The theme of the original album absorbs the feelings of the iron curtain era, dividing nations during the Communist regime. “The memories rescued through their music aren’t only historical, they are first and foremost emotional recollections of their past growing up in East Berlin in the final decade of the GDR and the country’s turning point in the 90s.” On the subsequent remix project, MUSIKHAUS (2021), the duo ask musicians to engage with musical impressions of the theme. “Every track on HAUSMUSIK offers a new vision of the past, confirming that memories, as well as history itself, is always subject to reinterpretations and revisions – a recurring idea in CEEYS’ oeuvre.” Besides the urgent yet gorgeous sounds offered by Ben Lukas Boysen for the remix, there is a film directed by Levin Haegele shot during the lockdown, in London’s Barbican – a performing arts centre designed in the brutalist architecture style – a perfect scenery for that post-WWII [and post-pandemic] world.”
Levin Haegele
"The snow is starting to fall and I am cold. It is early and London is still in lockdown. The sky is grey like the concrete at the Barbican. I look and try to find angles and shapes that feel the way I do - desperate and slightly lost. I usually take photographs here, but today I am taking 10-second clips. Instead of the click of the shutter, it’s the silent ‘start’ and ‘stop’ of a silent virtual button. The snow is still falling and I am still cold.
The sun is shining and everything is bathed in golden light. The leaves are green it smells like summer. Lockdown in has eased, but there still aren’t that many people around. Perhaps it’s too early in the day, or maybe people are still unsure how to reintegrate into a new version of normality? I revisit all of the places that I walked through a few months ago. Things seem different - not better, just different. I compose the scene, record the clip, and move on. It is still warm.
The video for Ben Lukas Boysen’s rework of Fallen is a balance between two contrasting halves."
"It was a lovely challenge to try and add something to the tightly knit dynamic of Daniel and Sebastian. Rather than fully deconstructing the original piece, I took the position of remixing as if I were a third band member for a few minutes. This way the original can shine and still gets a different feel."
— Ben Lukas Boysen
Original music by CEEYS, Brueder Selke, brothers Sebastian & Daniel
Rework by Ben Lukas Boysen
Mastered by Mandy Parnell, Black Saloon Studios, London
Filmed by Levin Haegele, London
Directed by Levin Haegele & Daniel Selke