STATIC FILMS biography
STATIC FILMS was born in 1997 as the musical outlet of MARK TRECKA. It has consistently included collaboration with multi-instrumentalist / arranger Douglas Tesnow, in addition to various other performers, but always the songs of Trecka. The life of Static Films has so far been an exploration of experimental tone assembly, noise-rock, folk, rock-n-roll and poetry. Static Films has walked and stumbled and rolled along these paths for seven plus years, to find itself in a place where it is embraced from all sides by soul and blues, folk and rock, and most notably, an impassioned desire to communicate the sense of the strived-for; to call out across the Great Divide. This is done with a thoughtful, albeit shifting aesthetic and an undeniably commanding presence, which Trecka believes not to be his own, but that of the Spirit.
Static Films' second full-length 'LOVE OF LIGHT' illustrates a marked progression in both style and method for the ever-evolving songwriting of Mark Trecka and arrangements of Douglas Tesnow along with the revolving cast of players. While the first Static Films full-length, 'FORCE OVER DISTANCE' was recorded over three years at six sites in two different cities, 'Love of Light' in great contrast, was recorded in just six days in one location. Locked in the windowless Projects Studios of Bloomington, IN, producer Jim Zespy and Static Films (as a group sometimes numbering ten players), executed over a year's worth of heavily contemplated arrangements alongside a sense of spontineity in but a few all-night recording sessions, producing a coherent work of urgency not unlike Nico's 'Desertshore' or Tim Buckley's 'Lorca'.
'Love of Light' is a record at once gothic and bluesy, varying from the piano and pump organ grandeur of the opener, "Loss of Light", to the minimal acapella of the meditative "Calling". Revolving around themes of impermanence and the struggle to embrace life in the face of death, 'Love of Light' achieves a conceptual cornerstone in the soulful ballad "The Hanging of the Inevitable", which sounds something like 'Songs of Love and Hate'-era Leonard Cohen covering Cat Power. Espousing an emphatic and active condemnation of death as a paralyzing notion, much of the album sounds like a last-ditch effort of one bearing the weight of a spiritual hangover. But like the aforementioned works along with perhaps Van Morrison's 'Veedon Fleece', 'Love of Light''s sense of urgency rises as an uplift, an empowering call-to-arms rather than a sort of beaten-down surrender. Any sort of "heavy" mood that 'Love of Light' hinges on manifests not as depressing, but simply as urgent and quite serious. Trecka's voice calls out in the mounting piano and swelling organ and chorus of voices, an ultimatum of love and abandon: "Day has come to decide where I stand / but I will lay in a crease in the palm of Love¹s hand."
The release of this record, as well as the subsequent months of touring to support it, will hope to establish Static Films as contemporaries to such artists as BRIGHT EYES and THE MICROPHONES. But while Static Films become a contender for the hearts of fans of these artists, they clearly stand as unique in their own right. Static Films has performed in the US and UK supporting bands such as SONGS: OHIA, APPENDIX OUT / ALASDAIR ROBERTS, SCOUT NIBLETT, AZITA and others.
"In an era where chemicals are prescribed to maintain bland facial expressions and level off emotions to a flat-line, Static Films' intensity is distinctly out-of-place. But that's just the point... like Leonard Cohen singing hymns in a church backed by Mogwai and The Rachels." - UR Chicago
STATIC FILMS' follow-up to 'Love of Light', entitled "BOXING VAPOURS", will be released in late 2005, once again on longtime label and friend, BLUESANCT, a Bloomington, Indiana based label which is part of the SECRETLY CANADIAN DISTRIBUTION group.
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STATIC FILMS discography
FULL-LENGTH and EP RELEASES:
• STATIC FILMS - 'Boxing Vapours' CD (BLUESANCT)
RELEASED: forthcoming autumn 2005
• STATIC FILMS - 'Love of Light' CD (BLUESANCT, INRI062)
RELEASED: November 2nd, 2004
• STATIC FILMS - 'No Gentle City Wolf' CDR (self produced)
RELEASED: tour only CDEP
• STATIC FILMS - 'Mercy' LP
RELEASED: unreleased
• STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (BLUESANCT, INRI062)
RELEASED: October 7th, 2003
• STATIC FILMS have also released several small run CDR eps on BLUESANCT dating back to 1998
SELECT COMPILATION APPEARANCES:
• 2 tracks on 'REVOLUTION: BLUESANCT' COMPILATION CD (ORPHANOLOGY, ORPHAN009)
RELEASED: May 7th, 2004
• track on '19 WAYS TO AVOID THE DRAFT' COMPILATION CD (MAR/INO, AV010)
RELEASED: 2002
• MARK TRECKA also appears on several recordings by and performs as member of DREKKA and VIR
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STATIC FILMS mp3 downloads
STATIC FILMS - Towards You, in the Water (from 'Love of Light')
STATIC FILMS - Out There Among the Wolves (from 'No Gentle City Wolf')
STATIC FILMS - cave pt. park (from 'force over distance')
STATIC FILMS - Landlord (from 'mercy')
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STATIC FILMS press reviews
STATIC FILMS - 'Love Of Light' CD (INRI077)
"Believe me when I say your voice is a fire, it's a fire"
Lights, birds and bodies consume much of the lyrical content on Static Films opus (yes, ultra-creative) 'Love of Light', their latest on the grand Indiana label BlueSanct - home of Drekka, Elephant Micah (whom lend vocal assistance on Love of Light) and then some. One haunted piano and the melodica serve as the musical foundation, as Static Films paint an impressionable atmosphere of late night / early am alertness.
This being my first Static Films experience, I must say I am totally taken with surprise, as this band of brothers & sisters (no relation as far as this one can tell - there are over a dozen castmembers listed) have crafted an sophomore album of near-endless wonder. From the delicate, single strums of "Calling" to the entire sound surround of (listener fave) "Song for Birds" - Static Films is playing on many more than a one-card deck, and a formula that works very well for such a young band. Opening track "Loss of Light" had me conspiring to toss a comparison vocally to Jim James of My Morning Jacket, but when Love of Light draws to a close - it's quite obvious Static Films and lead man Mark Trecka are best left to a category of their own: one to be heard.
"Bless the ones who don't need better sense".
- SLIGHTLY CONFUSING TO A STRANGER, USA (January 2005)
STATIC FILMS - 'Love Of Light' CD (INRI077)
A sense of suffering decadance fills every track, every passage, every individual note, contained in this new work by Static Films, a project resonant from the wonderful name, born from the mind of the American songwriter Mark Trecka. "Love of Light" is a disk that to the opposite one of the title that carries digs in the places more buried of our state of mind, and is capable of exciting thanks to thin episodes and dark based on minimali arpeggi of guitar, reduced agreement of plan and on a sung abrasive and to hysterical strokes. The initial "Loss of Light" is an excellent cards from visit, perfectly in suspense between the existential voids to there Thom Yorke (you see songs like Pyramid Song) and the I disillusion American of Songs: Ohia. Just the time of to remain open mouth and "Love of Light" reaches immediately its maximum, thanks to "Song for Birds", masterpiece in as for decline, elegance and drawing up of the lyric ("...believe me when the say your voice is to fire... it' s to fire... it' s to fire"). Shudders. The coralità without sound of "Calling" returns to the suffering magic of the first spirituals while "Toward you in the water" is the classic danced "sucks-soul" to whose people like first Cohen then Objection, Smog, and attractive company us pleasantly got used. The disk slides via in teaching manner and leaves the mark in every fraseggio: the electric openings of "Panagea Blues", the I plant in throat of "The Hanging of the Inevitable", the bloodless pace of "TO graceful. .." and the conclusive and instrumental one "Freedom" title that not at random recalls to a liberation, to a search for light of whom everyone of those always needed. A disk to advise who also in the darkness knows to find the light, and to all those that like me, think that also the sadness in specific moments has its wonderful side.
(rough translation from Italian)
- COMUNICAZIONE INTERNA, ITALY (January 2005)
STATIC FILMS - 'Love Of Light' CD (INRI077)
The element of their last release, outsider delicacy with some off-beat artistic griefs is transformed here to a more balanced expressive loner-ride driven complaint, mostly arranged by a nice 8-piece art-rock band with guest vocals by 5 extra people like Joe O'Connell of Elephant Micah, or is simply lead by piano or strummed amplified guitar (like on the last track, "Freedom"). "Toward you in the water" is even stretched with instrumental arrangements by the band to over 7 minutes. An improvement to the already expressive former album which I'm sure will access doors to a wider public.
- Gerald van Waes, SINGERSONG, BELGIUM (January 2005)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
You can say one thing about Bluesanct: this label caters to its audience, and that attracts like-minded bands at an ever-accelerating clip. Static Films, like every single other band I've heard from this label (and, in my unofficial position as Splendid's Bluesanct go-to guy, that number is only getting larger), draws its inspiration from fractured Americana, creating deeply personal art out of the instruments of our shared national past, the styles of music that have developed in the crannies of our culture.
Unlike many of its labelmates, however, and definitely to Force Over Distance's detriment, the band has yet to develop a clear understanding of the line between raw experiment and woeful self-indulgence. To the album's further detriment, its epic opener/title track is the biggest exhibit in the prosecution of Static Films for gross audience attention span abuse. It's twelve minutes and nineteen seconds of rather pleasant lyrical scene-setting, followed by unforgivable vocal emoting. "Force Over Distance" relies entirely on singer Mark Trecka's warbly vocals and rudimentary guitar playing, neither of which is the band's strongest aspect. The song can't end too soon...and doesn't.
Fortunately, once "Panthalassa" begins, many of the band's problems disappear. With the addition of well-chosen organ tones and some excellent drumming, Trecka's vocals take on a life that they simply can't manage on their own. The conventional song structure lasts through the song's first third; the majority is given over to a more experimental vibe that, while it again demands considerable attention on the listener's part, develops and mutates in interesting ways.
The rest of the album develops along the lines set out in "Panthalassa", though none of the other tracks veer quite as far in the direction of ambience and experiment. "Phosphorescent Aquatic Life" and "Song For Emily", the disc's other vocal-and-acoustic-based tracks, are saved from the fate of the album's bete noir through their considerably shorter length and their additional sonic elements -- the former through background noises, the latter through multitracked vocals. "Optimism Rising", all arpeggiated guitar and wheezing accordion tones, builds to a gorgeous melancholy duet. "Cave Point Park" meanders through its muddy production, swirling in a satisfying, resigned way.
The album's clear standout, "Just Above Sea Level, Just Below Sea Level", is ironically the track with the most conventional song structure. Among other things, this fact indicates that for all of the great things they managed to on Force Over Distance, Static Films still has something to learn from the other bands on its label about what makes ramshackle Americana ideas hang together well enough to create a truly brilliant album.
- Brett McCallon, SPLENDID, USA (April 2004)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
Have you ever gone camping and sat around a fire with a guitar in a non-hippie sort of way? And don't start with the creepy boy-scout-molestation ideas, either. But you know, just been out under the million stars you can't see in the city, singing songs for people you're close with, and trying to stay warm by a small fire? Well, neither have I, but after hearing the Static Films debut album on BlueSanct, I think I've got an idea what it might be like.
There's a certain intimacy involved with the above situation that you can't really fake, and on "Force Over Distance," Static Films does that very well. At least, on some songs. This album is frustrating because there are moments of brilliance and then moments of over-indulgence that make you want to just shake whoever is responsible and say "What the hell are you doing?! Just stop it! Christ!" Well, maybe not that extreme. It¹s like when your mom makes that amazing chocolate cake that she's made for you most of your life. You love this cake; it's the most delicious and moist cake you've ever tasted. Then, just because she can, she tries some other recipe that's not that great. It frustrates you because you think "Mom! We all know what you¹re capable of - we've tasted your cake! Why did you go and do this silly experiment?" That's how I feel about certain songs on this album.
The CD opens with the lovely, albeit lengthy, title track. It's with this song that I'm most reminded of the aforementioned campfire scenario. There's something haunting and beautiful about this song, even though it's just a guy and his acoustic guitar. The vocals remind me of Simon Joyner, in a way. Lyrics like "God is an open hand on her chest" and "Hope will await us there" are sung with the most sincere honesty and longing. It is wonderful, and I feel like I shouldn't be hearing this, it's so intimate. There's one big problem with this song: it's 12 minutes long. Now, I have no problem with long songs, but honestly after 12 minutes of a guy doing solo acoustic guitar music, I want to punch him. This really is a wonderful song, but as the saying goes, you can have too much of a good thing. This is way too much.
Track two, "Panthalassa," sort of suffers the same fate. The opening 2 minutes is this catchy kind of Smiths (in a very vague way) song. Then it goes into 5 minutes of droning and moaning that would be good for the a final minute and a half, but sheesh. It's especially annoying because it makes you wait even longer for the best song on the album, "Cave Point Park." This song was what originally made me buy this CD. It's so delightful! It opens with some sort of instrument (I can't place it. I think it may be some sort of keyed instrument) and then an organ and/or horns fade in with the vocals. It's really Victorian sounding, and I love it. There's also kettle drums (or toms mixed really deep) that accentuate the doubled vocals. Really, this song has this Tom Waits feeling to it that is fantastic. Harmonies, muted trumpet, sparse clanging cymbal work... this is the angle Static Films should focus on.
The rest of the album is really good, too. "Optimism Rising" is played slow on an electric guitar with minimal percussion and some nice harmonica playing. The vocals are sleepy in a good way, and the overall mood of the song is of someone who is at absolute bottom and realizes there're good things to come. I'm reminded of someone exorcising their demons through song just so they can move forward. "Phosphorescent Aquatic Life" is my second favorite song on the album and is mostly acoustic guitar and vocals, but there are some nice atmospheric sounds in the latter half and some subtle (but excellent) strings. Again, think intimacy times ten. I imagine watching someone through the window of their apartment getting awful news of some sort. There's something about this song that makes me picture someone pacing. "Just Above Sea Level, Just Below Sea Level" is a nice mix of "Cave Pt. Park" and the first part of "Panthalassa." The bongos and other percussion make it even more catchy. He's beside the campfire again, but this time he brought friends to play along, too. The strings are a very welcome addition and contribute to the song's warmth. I want to hear this when I'm sipping a glass of red wine on my new balcony. "Song for Emily" starts off strong with the quiet guitar and sad vocals, but then it just becomes a doubled vocal track saying "Na na na" and other crap over and over again. This song is a good microcosm for the whole album. It's so close to being a remarkable record, but holds itself back.
I learned three things from this album: 1. Static Films have a lot of promise and real songwriting talent. I look forward to his next album and have no idea what to expect (this is good). 2. I want to go camping and bring my guitar and my wife. I think it'd be wonderful and fun to record. 3. If I ever am at a show where someone plays a 12 minute song that's just guitar and vocals, I'm punching them in the fucking face.
RATING: 7/10 stars
- Brad Rose, FOXY DIGITALIS, US (spring 2004)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
Another entry into the experimental folk genre, Static Films wed their simple acoustic melodies to complex arrangements and an impressively wide range of instrumentation that runs the gamut from your basic acoustic guitar through to pump organs, horns, swells of noise, keys, strings, and walkie talkie choirs. The production is suitably lo-fi with plenty of room noise and warm mic hum to cushion the often downtempo and melancholic work.
Impressive as the scope of the work is, however, there are a couple points of caution. Much as is the case with Devendra Banhart, Static Films' frontman Mark Trecka's slightly off-key, warbly vocals will be a make-or-break issue for many. For those who get it, Trecka's fractured voice will serve as a perfect counterpoint to the content of his work and similarly listing music. For others, they'll get a few lines in and turn him off.
Second, there are points where Static Films seem to be too clever for their own good, often choosing the more convoluted path simply because it's longer and more complex, instead of looking for the route that would serve their work the best. On the whole, however, a promising debut.
- Chris Brown, OPUSZINE, USA (November 2003)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
Static Films has been in the works for approximately seven years, and Force Over Distance is the project's debut album. Vocalist Mark Trecka's voice is the primary feature, although Trecka has a host of others to fill in and help flesh out the material. Most of the songs seem to float right by, gentle in their delivery and coming in somewhere between folk, indie pop, and dreamy, swirling rock. Trecka delivers his lines calmly, never forced, at times sounding like Dave Matthews, at other times like Chris Martin of Coldplay, but most of the time just like himself and no other. The songs flow well on their own, one coming in at only two minutes, while the opener is over 12 minutes long and everything else is somewhere in between. The only occasional annoyance is when Trecka tries to force his voice beyond where it's meant to go, or when he keeps repeating the same thing over and over, as on the last track, "Song for Emily," with its repeating line of "na-na-na-na." There is still a need for some of this to be polished up a bit, but not too much. Most of it is just right the way it is: lo-fi and basic, but heartfelt and honest.
RATING: 3/5 stars
- Kurt Morris, ALL MUSIC GUIDE, USA (spring 2004)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
Se non vado errato questa è l'opera prima del cantante/autore Mark Trecka, anche se è una band a tutti gli effetti quella che viene accreditata come responsabile. Del cantautore 'depresso' Mark ha le stimmate: musica dilatata e lamentos(issim)a, grande importanza data alla parte testuale, scrittura 'narrativa' con dispiego di strumentazione che ripete-accompagna la voce pur elevandosi spesso con personalità propria.
Il nome a cui viene naturale accostarlo è quello del Dave Fischoff del primo album, per la stessa sfasatura tra presente e passato e la stessa capacità di far suonare il primo come il secondo e viceversa. Rispetto a Fischoff però la struttura musicale degli Static Films è più 'classica' e affonda le radici in luoghi come certo Canterbury e certo prog-folk inglese a cavallo tra '60 e '70. In queste canzoni dalla dimensione onirica e perturbata, capaci di allungarsi anche per un quarto d¹ora, trovate ricordi di musica per l'infanzia e carole natalizie, memorie folkie e brevi partiture in forma di suite. Gli strumenti - harmonium, fisarmonica, organo, synth, melodica, tromba e percussioni - non indulgono mai in peripezie e virtuosismi, tendendo anzi a creare un tessuto uniforme e vagamente minimalista, o forse meglio semplicemente allungato, stirato, malinconicamente cosparso nell'aria mentre la voce disperata e sofferente di Mark si dispiega come un sudario. Alla fine forse è proprio la voce a trasformarsi nel limite più evidente del disco, troppo monotona, monocorde e sul filo di un pianto che non arriva mai. Ma è comunque un esordio rilevante, da collocare a età tra Bright Eyes (per la logorrea), Mark Eitzel (per la nenia vocale), il Boxhead Ensemble e, ovviamente, Fischoff. Anche se probabilmente Trecka mira a Buckley, Wyatt e Thompson.
RATING: 7/10
- Stefano Bianchi, BlowUp, ITALY (November 2003)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
From the same label as the second Black Forest/Black Sea comes this release that has partly some Bonnie-Prince Billie mood, but with the lyrics in the background. It starts at its worst, with a depressed dark bored voice and song, accompanied with acoustic guitar. There I had the feeling the singer is not depressed enough to be able to shut up, but also hasn't come yet to a more powerful self-expression, as a start for any kind of transformation process. The emotions are that from a child who was left alone by his mother, a state where often society will be blamed. The expressions are unclear, self-trapped, and -very fitting with this unclear perspective- the singer can't sing. Of this 10 minutes song about 9 minutes have a repetitive character. Then a more moody track follows, with harmonium and guitar, recalling a late night deserted corner with overfull dust-bins, a place where nobody sings about. But then the quality of expression opens up, and the singer finds warmth in at first a one night band, harmonica, handpercussion and trumpet, (a recovery!). From lost childhood dreams this comes to adolescence waning, with some electric guitar on the back.. Also on the next couple of tracks, the singer, with guitar, keeps his emotions under control, and becomes a bit poetic like, possibly influenced by and sounding also somewhat similar to Palace / Bonnie Prince Billie this time. The accompaniment builds up very nicely, at times slightly experimental or improvised (piano, guitar, noises, harmonica, and some cello). With such an accompanying band Static Film begins to floorish. That much so, that one track even uses a pleasant hand clap rhythm, all this with that underlying Bonnie Prince Billie mood. And another track, now clearly sung, a song full of hope, accompanied by this chamber poprock orchestra. Only the last track falls back again to the voice on the edge of boredom. Still.. rewarding.
RATING: 2.5/5 stars
- Gerald Van Waes, PSYCHE VAN HET FOLK, BELGIUM (spring 2004)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
As with Sparklehorse¹s Mark Linkous, the way you receive the voice of Static Films¹ Mark Trecka will determine your attitude to their entire canon. A reedy, slightly off-key warble, it¹s either the perfect metaphor for Static Films¹ complex, all-of-humanity-in-an-hour brand of experimental American folk, or just bloody annoying. This writer sits on the side of the metaphor, bell-pure intonation just wouldn¹t work with the pump organs, ambient noise and gently swelling cacophony that make ŒForce Over Distance¹ more a long hard stare into a slightly unhinged cabin-bound mind than a peek through a window into suburban domesticity. There¹s real danger here, an edge of menace that they dare not unleash; it¹s that air of restrained tension that marks this out as the very darkest Americana.
RATING: 3.5/5 stars
- Michael Ornadet, LOGO MAGAZINE, UK (spring 2004)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
Static Films produces a completely original soundscape which is equal parts Nico (atmospherics), Radiohead (Thom Yorke's croon), symphonic sounds and mellow folk
- writer unknown, THE COLUMBIAN CHRONICLE, CHICAGO, USA (date unknown)
STATIC FILMS - 'Force Over Distance' CD (INRI062)
In an era where chemicals are prescribed to maintain bland facial expressions and level off emotions to a flat-line, [Static Films'] intensity is distinctly out-of-place. But that's just the point. . . .Like LEONARD COHEN and NICO singing hymns in a church backed by MOGWAI or THE RACHEL'S
- writer unknown, UR CHICAGO, USA (date unknown)
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STATIC FILMS contact info
MARK TRECKA (singer for STATIC FILMS): marktrecka@wowway.com
MICHAEL ANDERSON (head of BLUESANCT): figurehead@bluesanct.com
BLUESANCT (STATIC FILMS label): bluesanct.com
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STATIC FILMS images
(right click on the link and select 'download to disk' to save file to your computer)
FORCE OVER DISTANCE album cover
300DPI COLOR JPG, 3"x3"
LOVE OF LIGHT album cover
300DPI COLOR JPG, 3"x3"
MARK TRECKA photo I
300DPI COLOR JPG, 5"x6"
MARK TRECKA photo II
300DPI COLOR JPG, 5"x7"
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Thank you.
