Ahead of buckling down for her upcoming album, Get Your Flute On, ECMA and MusicNL Award-winner Rozalind MacPhail, she’s been on the road and finding herself in some interesting places. While visiting what MacPhail describes as the “coolest apartment” in Halifax, Nova Scotia she took the opportunity to record this live performance of “The Gaze.”
As part of a audio-visual collaboration MacPhail performs “The Gaze” alongside Shona Thomson‘s film featuring 1940’s archival footage from Wilmington, North Carolina. Thomson, a producer and curator from Scotland, collected the footage from the New Hanover Public Library during her artist residency through Cucalorus Festival. Originally shot on 16mm film, each shot includes a moment when someone is gazing back at the camera.
Thomson not only created the film behind “The Gaze,” but also penned the poem that became the song’s lyrics. It was a first time collaboration for MacPhail and Thomson, but right after the video was filmed the pair toured across North Carolina.
“She wrote a beautiful poem about it and the moment I read it, I knew this live score required the voice. I decided to compose the song for omnichord, one of my favourite instruments, the voice and the flute. It was a really interesting songwriting experience for me. I literally completed writing the song in a few hours which never happens for me! The whole experience was totally in the flow,” says MacPhail.
“This song reminds me of those moments when we ache to return to a special time in our lives. I always get goosebumps performing this audience favourite.”
The video performance came together while MacPhail was showcasing at the ECMA’s in Halifax during her tour of Atlantic Canada. The opportunity came up to capture it live with director Sarah Denim and Cinemaphotographer Nicole Cecile Holland, but lacked the space to film it. That’s when MacPhail met Laura Simpson one of the two founding partners (those other being JUNO Award-winner Dan Mangan) of the Side Door pop-up venue network.
“Within minutes, she found me the coolest apartment by the Halifax waterfront,” says MacPhail.
While the apartment only makes a brief appearance in the video, somehow it’s that very sort of experience that takes certain stage to the song. It may be a long way from 1940’s North Carolina, but documenting her performance in that apartment somehow seems to connect the two ideas.
“I think everyone can relate to those special moments in our lives and how we can sometimes ache for them to return but know deep down that they never will,” says MacPhail. “This is one of the main reasons why I feel it’s so important to document our memories. They are moments that teach us so much and can help us teach others how to see the world from a different perspective.”
MacPhail is currently taking time away from the stage for the winter to record a new electronic album, Get Your Flute On. It’s expect to see release sometime in 2019.