середа, 25 березня 2020 р.

Helen Zaltzman's "nmiigea" aka John Lennon's "Imagine" in reverse alphabetical order




Check out this interesting take on John Lennon's Imagine by Helen Zaltzman. "nmiigea" is a reinterpretation of the song with the lyrics arranged in reverse alphabetical order. Why? To "quell anxiety and stress and sleeplessness". The whole thing is presented in the form of an aspirational lyric read-out with soothing guitar muzak in the background.

"nmiigea" is a total conversion of the source material, the song is hijacked and reconfigured into something else to the point of losing any semblance of its original form. Reverse alphabetical order approach completely eviscerates the narrative of the song and consequently evaporates any themes it was transmitting. Instead you get a roundabout incantation of the words devoid of prior coherence. The mental connection to the source material provides space to think about the relativity of the matters.

Some words are repeated over and over, the others only happen once or twice. Either way, there is a gaping chasm in the midst. You know what it is and ahe words are there and they are spoken but they don't come together as they should.

One way of perceiving the piece is by concentrating on the sound of the word. It works from my perspective/ Since english is my second language i'm to able to distance myself enough to take the spoken words as sounds first and words second (makes me rather tolerant to silly lyrics).

The other viable option to let the stream of words to go in and form incidental images, narratives, phrases as you perceive it. The resulting permutation may go places or stomp around the source material - depending on your mood.

As it is - "nmiigea" is an interesting rumination on the way words bear meanings and how these meanings transform in the context and form then narrative. It is an exercise in excising the thick of it. What if there is no apparent context, no narrative to hold it together. What does it mean then?




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