Today, June 10, at 8:30 pm, at the Banffy Castle in Bonțida, Swedish-English singer Jay-Jay Johanson will have his first concert since the release of his latest album.
Banffy Castle is known today for two things: festivals and an electrical atmosphere. Tonight, the two will be combined by Jay-Jay Johanson, often called one of the most influential figures in the field of trip hop and electroclash music in Europe. Beyond fame, this concert is remarkable because it is only one day after the release of the album Fetish, the Swede's fourteenth album in his career of over 25 years. The concert will be followed by the screening of the Swedish film What a Fantastic Machine, directed by Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck.
Fetish, which we currently listen to in headphones with the greatest joy, combines, in the typical Jay-Jay Johanson style, the melancholy electronic with retro jazz, giving a note of „ sobriety of pop music ”, according to Jay-Jay in an interview with Zile și Nopți. In addition to rhythm synths (sometimes even energizing) and a jazz-influenced piano, Fetish also borrows a lot from the soundtrack area of the past, especially from Stanley Kubrick's films, with classic notes and long-lasting instrumental fragments, perfect to generate atmosphere.
The connection to the film industry has always existed for Johanson, who often mentions love for Stanley Kubrick and Andy Warhol's experimental films, so his music serves as an entree for a Swedish film screening, the singer-songwriter's homeland. The documentary in question, What a fantastic machine, goes through a history of how we use high-speed video cameras, demanding exactly the availability of synapses and the concentration of Johanson's futuristic noir sound.
There couldn't be a more favorable combination – an electroclash concert in a castle often called electric and a film about history in a historical space. The documentary screening of What a beautiful machine is carried out with the help and support of Scandinavian Films, Swedish Film Institute and the Swedish Embassy in Romania.