Przemyslaw Stradczuk (visual) and Firma (audio)

(left) fragment from "A" by Stradczuk, (right) Rocca

In 2001 a local music television channel showed a clip from a band I never heard of before called Firma. The song "La Orbire" was revolutionary for Romanian standards at the time so it was obvious to stir my curiosity, however not the interest of record companies. Two years had to pass in order for the band to release their first album (with the same name), so in 2003 I finally managed to see what Firma is all about. The song you will listen to is not  "La Orbire" but a largely instrumental piece called "Pe Marginea Prăpastiei" (On the Edge of the Abyss). I choose this because of both aesthetic and practical reasons, no need to worry about a language barrier while at the same time giving a sneak peek at Rocca's voice at the end of the song, it's also my favorite song from the album, after "La Orbire". The band members are: Daniel Rocca (voice), LiX (guitar), Sorin Erhan (bass) and Cristi Raducanu (drums).

Respect the artists, buy their work.

 
"Thought you said you wanted pleasure,
thought you said you wanted to forget about yourself
to forget about everyone else. 
Don't worry, my friend.
You've got all the pleasure you need
On the edge of the cliff." 

Przemyslaw Stradczuk, or Bucz, so as to keep things simple, is a Polish artist currently living in the United Kingdom focused on photography and photomanipulation. I see his work as rather dark but not macabre, some images can be mildly disturbing for the casual viewer and this is the reason I searched for music which is somewhere at the middle with one leg in the land of thought and introspection and the other in our "normal" world. There is a (what I call) rock n roll attitude in the first four images, a type of nonchalance, which gives great personality to the photos. The last two images go very well together and you don't need me to point out the religious aspect in them... although being in a period of intense religious studies I may surpass the most indulgent limits of subjectivity in this matter, even in art. Stradczuk's art makes me question myself and encourages me to seek answers; I don't know where you aimed but that's where it hit. His facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Przemyslaw.Stradczuk.Photography and deviantART: http://bucz.deviantart.com/
Enjoy and remember, respect the artist, buy his work.

Gallery

Poetry

"(...) This earth will grow cold one day,
not like a block of ice
or a dead cloud even
but like an empty walnut it will roll along
in pitch-black space . . .
You must grieve for this right now
--you have to feel this sorrow now--
for the world must be loved this much
if you're going to say "I lived". . ."

- On Living by Nazim Hikmet