Rowan Gruner created a video for Track 8 from Bowline’s Debut album “Circling Strangers”
Video maker’s statement: “This music video is a simple editing experiment in the vein of what I find so fascinating about Bowlines – improvisation. Improvising, to me, is about the ‘doing’, without planning the route.
Bravely ‘busting out’ without self judgement. It’s about responding to what you’re experiencing moment to moment, by reflecting, expressing, and playing with that personal experience of the world.
For this music video, I pooled together any footage from my archive that could be described as simple, vague, and in-focus. From there I spent 1 hour stitching together these random, unconnected video clips. By changing the order, length, and speed of the clips, my only intention was to create, build, and compound meaning, themes, or ideas that fit with the track.
Just like a Bowlines improvisation, the video seems to make more sense the longer you give it a chance, by letting your mind wander as you softly pay attention to what you’re seeing and hearing (or more specifically, paying attention to how you feel about what you’re experiencing). Though in that 1 hour editing session I was thinking of (and trying to evoke) specific themes and feelings from events that have happened in my life.. really, none of my intentions particularly matter! All that matters is if it stirs something, anything in you.
If we’re able to create a feeling for you to observe in yourself, to inspire any amount of self reflection and awareness, then that’s a victory. Sure it’s a cliche but I do believe the truth will set you free. I used to think improvisation was just lazy, crappy sounding.. which led to me to consider and become more aware of how critical and closed off I can be. Improvisation is more raw and confronting. You can learn so much about each performer, their dynamics, and yourself as you witness what unfolds.
Through the mastery of their instruments and their fine tuned ability to ‘read’ each other, the musical pieces that occur can be at once beautiful, exciting, and sombre. If you’re there in the moment, the music and your thoughts may fleetingly fall together, you may have the privelage of experiencing ‘mono no aware’ and with it, a sense of levity, comfort, and personal freedom. Though in some ways improvised music (especially improvised editing) may be easier and less polished, compared to a composed/rehearsed piece, that’s precisely where the charm and advantage lies. It’s straight from the heart (or subconcious, if romantic terms aren’t your flavour), it’s less filtered, and revealing in a way that’s unique to the form.”