Monday, May 04, 2009

Finding Kate

Hello, I am mentioned as 'along for the rider' (sic), cheers Oliver. This is true to an extent, I am coming into the project relatively late, and what exactly my input will be in the venture is yet to be decided.

Apart from this, what do I want to do - 'FIND KATE'.

I wish to find her in her music. This is deeply flawed, as it becomes apparent that she doesn't wish to be found. Kate Bush (in the guise of herself as the singer and performer) draws on a prolific collection of literture. Her songs, in terms of their lyrical content, are constantly abstracting and distracting you away from Kate, herself.

The narrative, sung by Kate, is always OTHER PEOPLE. She is sometimes a child, sometime not human. The voice we hear is often male. It is also not a direct alter-ego of Kate as a boy, but a fictional or historically significant character. We are swiftly taken off into an imagined world; of either Kate Bush's or our own. This is what draws so many listeners in, this is what intrigues a second listen (perhaps). And this is what makes trying to 'FIND KATE' so hard, in her music at least.

Despite this problem, this quest is not without merit. Close inspection of her work always us to explore the themes which she wishes to explore. It allows us, perhaps, to then create our own dialogue with these ideas and potential creative stimuli.

So how do we go about arranging, and re-realising her music? What true way is there? What becomes evident when listening to her music is there is none. Kate is constantly duplicitious. She is playing with us. She's having fun, that doesn't mean to say that there is a glibness to her music (in my opinion quite the oppositive). But she does no wish to be constantly anything, all of the time. And not to be rude, she is incredibly multi-factected. SO MUST WE. The only way to be true to the music, is to be interesting, to change and play and to not be too much of anything at any point.

I will stop now, as I could ramble on about this constantly.

Bye for now.

Hannah
x

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