Close Up

14 May 2023: 'Still Living': Frans Zwartjes Album Launch

frans-zwartjes-copyright-jasper-zwartjes.jpg
© Jasper Zwartjes

Marking the release of previously unheard music by Frans Zwartjes, Close-Up is delighted to host the first opportunity to hear the double album: with a full, auditorium playback of the Zwartjes release, along with a short selection of films in tribute to the late polymath of the Dutch avant-garde.

Described by Susan Sontag as the most important experimental filmmaker of his generation, it is for his music that Frans Zwartjes has garnered much of his recent acclaim. Whether it is as a filmmaker, or a musician, or a painter, sculptor, teacher... Zwartjes needs no introduction.

purge.xxx is a record label that was established to release the work of Zwartjes, with its first limited cassette edition Music by Frans Zwartjes later reissued by Trunk Records as Tapes 1. purge.xxx has gone on to produce a slew of crucial soundtrack-centric records by Trevor Mathison, Dirk Schaefer, Takashi Inagaki, Nkisi, New Noveta, Bruce Gilbert and many others. Its founder Stanley Schtinter has been praised by The Wire magazine for his "disregard for the music industry, culture of self-promotion and prevailing cultural norms," and ability to "elevate distinct works and the obscure artists behind them".

Schtinter will be present at the event and attendees will be able to purchase with cash copies of the new double LP. For more information on the album, please visit http://purge.xxx/purrrrrj025