Feist has recently announced a new album Metals, out in October 2011.

She has collaborated on the new album with Chilly Gonzales, among others. The European tour starts at Carre Theatre in Amsterdam on October 15th. Looking forward to it.

In the meantime, you can watch a few nice teasers. Check Feist’s website for more.

The New Craftsmanship: Iris van Herpen and her inspiration is an interesting exhibition presented by Centraal Museum in Utrecht. The exhibition brings together Iris van Herpen’s creations and designs by other contemporary artists who have inspired her or with whom she has collaborated – such as the milliner Stephen Jones. Her work has also been juxtaposed with the art of the past, like the 18th century gold leather wall decor or the 17th century work of goldsmiths Adam and Paulus van Vianen.

Iris van Herpen, famous for her craftsmanship as well as her use of innovative techniques and materials such as metals or plastics, has won numerous awards. She designed the dress worn by Björk on the cover of her single Crystalline.

Her intricate designs are made mostly by hand, however, she has also made use of the “rapid prototyping” procedure, and the viewers can witness the actual 3D printing process at the exhibition.

Iris van Herpen has collaborated with people from different fields – for instance opera or theatre. The New Craftsmanship also presents the costumes she designed for the German production of the opera Madame Butterfly and for the Synthetic Twin dance performance.

Here is Forget Me Not feat. Emmanuelle Seigner, the second single promoting Smolik’s new, fourth album. The video was directed by the famous Polish cinematographer Pawel Edelman.

There is also an interesting interactive version at Forgetmenot.tv, created by unit9 director Dawid Marcinkowski.

It blends the official video with scenes from three sci-fi B-movies from the 1950s: The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, Teenagers From Outer Space, or Attack From Space. Viewers can watch the above video or click on the displayed lyrics to be taken to the looping scenes from the films, switch to a different film or back to the video. At the end viewers can choose to watch the three films online for free, or buy the song.

Nice idea. Here is the demo:

Interactive Direction: Dawid Marcinkowski and Kasia Kifert

Maison Martin Margiela store in Brussels.

Björk is simply brilliant.

Above is the music video for the first single, Crystalline, from her new album Biophilia, directed by Michel Gondry.

And here is Björk’s Biophilia app intro narrated by David Attenborough:

björk biophilia app intro narrated by david attenborough from Björk on Vimeo.

Words by Björk and Icelandic author and poet Sjón
Design by M/M (Paris)

Super nice.

I visited Foam in Amsterdam a few days ago to see the Anton Corbijn – inwards and onwards exhibition presenting Corbijn’s latest photographic series.

In the stylish black and white prints viewers will recognize some of the most influential artists defining our culture today or people they have admired: Iggy Pop, Kate Moss, Richard Prince, Tom Waits, Anthony Kiedis, Lucian Freud, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, and Alexander McQueen, among others.

My favorite was the portrait of PJ Harvey, seen above in the poster I bought at the museum.

Anton Corbijn – inwards and onwards
23 June – 1 September 2011

Foam
Keizersgracht 609
Amsterdam

Lykke Li – Jerome (The Lost Session) from Lykke Li on Vimeo.

Beautiful and dark: Lykke Li and “the lost session” of Jerome, from her second album Wounded Rhymes. Video made by Ted Malmros.