CRANES

30 posts

This is where I will put blog posts of cranes stuff, mostly because theres alot of old crap be uploaded these days, so I might as well order it up a bit.

Depth Map Video Processor – Setup Guide (Mac)

Introduction.


When making videos for Cranes recent re-releases, Im always working solely with old material. For Dada 331 I used footage from the Paradiso, and for “Wires” and “Here comes the snow”, both the videos used footage from a show in teh earlier 2000´s which I didn’t play at. I didn’t originally start with the footage of snow and landscape near my home in Norway.
As the song comes from the album “Particles and Waves” I first tried to build a video out of the DATA from that concert footage, and the audio waveforms of the song.
The technique I wanted to use was using a program called Touch Designer which I have been wanting to try for a while. Normally used in VJ effects or artist gallery installations, its particularly good at taking data and transforming it in realtime into visuals.
So I tried, using the video and audio for “Light Song.
So its two main elements. Visuals created from a particle system powered from teh audio that has been split into 3 frequency bands, a bit like an old Sound to Light system in school discos from the 70s, and 3d video generated from the gig footage.
Here what I wanted to do was, by using the same particle system, but this time moving teh particles based on depth in the video. If a particle was on Alisons arm, it would be infront of a partical that was on her face. So first I had to get depth information from teh video. iPhones generate it, (If they have the Lidar lens) and 3d modelling can generate a depth map, but not old video footage So I used an AI too from artificial labs to “guess” a depth map. This worked, but only on a frame by frame basis, so I had to create a way to

1. chop up the video into single frames
2. upload one image to artificial labs to do the depth map
3. download it when finished and upload the next

As the site only did one frame at a time I programmed using Claude a system to do this automatically.

When I finished, it hadn´t quite worked. It was a cool experiment, but we decided not to upload it to the Cranes channel.
But it WAS a fun experiment, so rather than bury it on a hard-drive heres first, I decided to put it here:
This is VERY NERDY. But the full and geeky explanation video complete with instructions and code follows on the second page of this post.

First, lets see the finished video. exclusive here and on YouTube.


CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NERDY “MAKING OF” VIDEO

Wires video

Heres my video for Wires a song from the Cranes self titles album.

Cranes mentioned in Simon Prices Curetopia book..

Almost a page…

Cranes look like a Russian peasant band, don’t they?’ said Robert Smith when asked to compare bands to national football teams. They look like they’ve just travelled across the Steppes barefoot. They get to the semi-finals and everybody says,

*Oh, I really like the Russians* then forgets all about them, which is a bit like Cranes. Oh, and I’ve seen Jim from Cranes drink a whole bottle of vocka, winich I thought only Russians could do …”

Formed in Portsmouth in 1985, Cranes – centred around the sister-brother duo of singer Alison and drummer Jim Shaw, soon joined by guitarists Mark Francombe and Matt Cope – emerged at the cusp of the nineties. They took their name from a David Leavitt story-within-a-story about an abandoned child who emulates the construction cranes he can see from his bedroom window (and also the fact that the dock at Portsmouth is dominated by cranes).

Their recordings, which combined Alison’s helium-high vocals (once compared to the lady in the radiator from Eraserhead) with an unsettlingly austere industrial-gothic backing, were championed by many writers (myself included) at Melody Maker magazine. which put them on the front cover long before they’d developed a significant fanbase. They were once described as ‘a dark reproach to the frivolity of the Madchester and Britpop years, their music a quiet but Insistent clarion call to solitude and seriousness.

The acclaim which greeted early releases such as mini-LP Self Non Self, the Inescapable EP and debut album Wings Of Joy, which exhibited the influence of Siouxsie And The Banshees’ orchestral phase circa Hyna and the etherealism of early Cocteau Twins, brought them to the attention of Robert Smith, who adopted them as, essentially, Support Band by Royal Appointment to The Cure – indeed, both he and Simon Gallup named them in Cure News as their ideal support band, and Robert described them as savagely underrated, a band with a vision”

Cranes did indeed support The Cure globally on the Wish tour of 1992. They missed the show on 15 May at Nassau Coliseum near New York due to problems entering the USA. At one extraordinary show on 15 November in Liévin, France, Alison was too ill to sing. so Robert Smith and Porl Thompson played her vocal lines on guitar. (Sadly, when Simon Gallup was ill on that tour, Alison Shaw didn’t reciprocate the favour by singing his basslines – they brought Roberto Soave in instead.)

The Cure’s patronage of Cranes continued in 1993 when Smith remixed their single ‘Jewel’, helping them towards their highest-ever chart position of No.29. Coincidentally, in 1996 Cranes released an album called La Tragédie d’Oreste et Electre, based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s Les Mouches (itself based on a Greek myth), meaning that both bands (see ‘Killing An Arab’, see Camus) had made records inspired by Existentialist literature.

In later years a lightness and liquidity entered

Cranes’ music, displacing the tumult and terrors of their early work, inviting a wholly new interpretation of the band’s name: Cranes are uplifting.

NEW SHOP!

After a 40-year hiatus from the darkroom, I have rekindled my passion for printmaking. The process of developing photos has always held a special place in my heart, and returning to it after so many years has been incredibly rewarding. There’s something magical about the darkroom—the dim red light, the smell of the chemicals, and the quiet anticipation as an image slowly appears on the paper. It’s a world away from the instant gratification of digital photography, offering a sense of craftsmanship and artistry that I’ve truly missed.

Images of a delapadated old concert venue called Peabody´s.

My first series of prints, available now, were taken on an old Lubitel box camera during the Cranes American tour in 1997. The Lubitel, with its vintage charm and quirks, added a unique character to the photos that modern cameras simply can’t replicate. This series holds a special significance for me, being the last time I played with the band in America, the resulting prints are not just images; they’re a piece of my history, infused with the spirit of that era.

Reconnecting with this art form has been a deeply personal journey. Each step, from selecting the negative to the final rinse, is a deliberate act that requires my full attention and care. It’s a meditative process, allowing me to slow down and immerse myself in the creative flow.

In sharing my renewed passion, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new online shop. This platform is a labour of love, showcasing the prints I’ve created in the darkroom. Additionally, I’ll soon be selling my “Kipple” artworks and there’s a T-shirt available now, celebrating my artistic journey, that has, for about 30 years now been known by the term “Ordo Ab Chao” or rather Order out of Chaos, a kind of mantra to how I work.

Visit the Ordo Ab Chao Shop

I invite you to explore the shop and discover the prints that resonate with you. Whether you’re a longtime aficionado of darkroom photography or someone newly discovering its charms, I hope my work brings a sense of joy and inspiration. Thank you for supporting my art and joining me in celebrating the timeless craft of darkroom photography.

Cranes! Forever 30th anniversary shows!

So it finally happened! After nearly a year of planning and rehearsing, Cranes played two sold out shows in the UK. And I played with them!

So, has the “classic line-up” got back together? Well… No, nearly happened but didn’t. The whole thing was actually Matt’s idea, but in the end, something happened that kind of forced him to drop out. I cannot say more, but let’s say it was brewing for a while.
Luckily Paul Smith was ready and willing to step up, and with 3 online rehearsals, and 2 liv’uns he was up to speed. My wife Hilde and son Nikolas came over and we managed to secure a superb little house in Southsea for the whole period.
We luckily had a good full day set-up and tech rehearsal at the Wedgewood Rooms, which was well needed and useful, especialy for Vince on lights and Nick on projections.

Last minute rehearsal at the Wedge.

The first concert by Cranes since 2013 and with me playing since 1997 (I think) happened on 6th October. It went pretty well. We had a little trouble with the backing tape, this time done on a mini-disk player. We thought this would be the most robust, secure method for our backing tracks, a bit more reliable than using DAT tapes as we used to use back in the 90’s. Since me they have used some other systems using Jim’s hardware recorder, but that sounded incredibly complicated. However, it didnt go quite to plan.we did have one track that absolutely refused to play. The “Everywhere” backing started ok, and then, after a few bars would cut out. We tried twice, but then skipped the track. Something went wrong at the beginning of September, which was totally my fault, had a brain freeze, dunno what, just was wrong. So we stopped that too. However, the crowd were fantastic, and no-one seemed to mind.

I went back to the house that evening determined to find a better way to do the tape. I discovered Stage Traxx, a fantastic but simple program. It even could be programmed to change my keyboard patches for me. We tested it at one short, kinda pointless rehearsal. I really don’t think it helps me at all to practice with the band in a small typical band rehearsal room. We have to play so quietly, I can’t hear myself, so anything Im trying to rehearse, like “am I in time”, “does the guitar sound righ”t, “am I playing the right notes” go ut the window, and anyway Jims drums overpower everything, however it confirmed that my Stage Traxx system was going to work.

The gig at Earth Theatre in Dalston was fantastic. We played quite ok (i fucked up my first guitar riff on Reverie, cos i couldn’t hear). The problem for me is that I swap instruments so much, it takes a few songs to get the sound ok, on all instruments. Vince was a total star, having managed to get the great screen from the Kings Theatre, he did some nifty negotiating to use the EartH Theatre back projector. And it looked fantastic! I don’t think I have ever seen my films so huge!

It was so great for me that in addition to Hilde & Nikolas, Benjamin, Kamilla and Lona had all come over a couple of days before, and it was so nice to see them all grinning in their reserved seats next to Ben and his family! If there was anything negative, it was the bloody security people. Not only had they been running about getting people to sit down (yes… Seats!!!) And stopping them from coming to the front to dance (why???) but also, the second we came off stage, they started herding everyone out, my bunch too, even though we were told that the bar was going to be kept open for an after party.

So instead of a nice stress free meet n greet (like i had promised some of the most keen fans) everyone was thrown out. I managed to get the bar to re-open, for a little bit and some people got back in, but I wish I’d checked the fan facebook group, as there was a flurry of arrangements being made by fans to pubs nearby, which might have been fun.

Anyway, at the end of the day, it was all confirmed as a great success, and the rather tentative future plans seem to now be less in doubt.

CRANES FOREVER!

Peel Sessions Release Day

Today we released the Peel Sessions album!

“Dinked edition”

It has been available for presale for a while as previously discussed, but this week I came over to Portsmouth to rehearse with Cranes, and help Alison with the mailing of all the preorders! We spent most of Monday and Tuesday stuffing vinyl into mailers (Alison had sent all the CDs last week) and one Tuesday Matt drove us down to Cosham Post Office.

Due partly to brexit the poor woman in the PO had to key in every address on each order, and we only got half the records shipped. But today, Friday we took down the other half and Ali waited there while they got it done.

Alison had done an amazing job of preparing all the addresses and organizing this mammoth task, but today, on the day that the record is actually released into shops, and available for download, we shipped all the pre-orders.

It’s very typical Cranes to do all of this ourselves, by hand. Ever since we were dropped by BMG, Cranes has done everything in a kind of DIY kitchen table kind of way. But now I think we have to find some better way.

The rehearsals this week started very badly, but 3 days later we were really starting to get somewhere. There still a long way to go, and some songs we haven’t even played yet, but we were all enjoying it by the end. This time around isn’t about success or sales or survival, it’s about fun, and being able to have a go at something a second time which frankly, we were lucky to do once before!

Adrift!