Holy Crap, she's back!

[HunterGather]

Goods

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Can't wait. I voted for that silly thing, but it says they're "trending down". Doubt they'll win it with more recognizable names there.

[clumsy342]

Out of all of new songs I think "kill" is my favorite by far. Beautiful.

also, I like how crazy her accent is. she takes 1 syllable and turns it into 4. "fall" becomes "faoweoughll" lol. love it.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Ha. So right about the "faoweoughll", clumsy.

[captncrzy]

http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Nicely edited.

[DJ Sin]

I absolutely love iamamiwhoami. She's been on my want list for Coachella for a very long time. I am excited that she'll have a physical album out in June!

[HunterGather]

http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/

Had they never released one video at a time, and just done one big release, that would have looked SO awesome!
It still does, but I've seen all the clips, so the surprise is gone so to speak.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

I feel like there are a couple of small moments in there that look new to me.

[Justin170]

LOVE

[HunterGather]

Hopefully there's neat pictures or something inside the booklet...

[mmsk123]

[captncrzy]

That's my favorite on the album.

[HunterGather]

I love the song, but I'm a bit let down that it didn't explain anything.
And the idea of it all being in her head doesn't seem likely/cop-out.

Also, they made 2 playlists on their youtube channel, one for BOUNTY and one for KIN.
JOHN and CLUMP are in the BOUNTY playlist. Kinda wanted/thought CLUMP was more part of KIN...



And speaking of, we don't know what that little girl/thing was from Clump and Drops (and for a second in IDLE TALK).

Are Bounty and Kin 2 separate story lines?
Now we'll have to see if there's bonus material or mini videos to come soon.

OH, and I guess she wasn't the same girl as in the ;John video putting her clothes in the hole (or maybe she was?)
And, I forgot about this video that came after Y. It looks like it takes place in a house, rather than the apartment building (?), but Jonna and the guy (presumably the one from ;John?) killed themselves.



/random thoughts

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Love the song! As for the video, it's certainly not the ending that "Y" was in the prior series, but this series always seemed less about the narrative and more about the general themes and the feel of the thing -- especially if, as Hunter indicates above, "John" and "Clump" are not considered part of Kin. I think this series really may have been about mental illness/depression/manic depression or something along those lines.

As for "Goods", with the costume and location change, I also kind of think this was intended to be Jonna singing directly to us, the audience, in an epilogue. I don't think she's "in character" here. Nothing's unintentional in this series. She's dressed as a harlequin -- a clown type character that emerged from commedia dell'arte and then later was part of the Harlequinade, which was part of a pantomime performance:

From Wiki: Harlequinade - Originally a mime (silent) act with music and stylised dance, the harlequinade later employed some dialogue, but it remained primarily a visual spectacle. Early in its development, it achieved great popularity as the comic closing part of a longer evening of entertainment, following a more serious presentation with operatic and balletic elements. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was presented with increasingly elaborate stage effects as the closing part of pantomimes. A fairy initiated a "transformation scene" that transformed the pantomime characters and scenes into the harlequinade. It lost popularity towards the end of the 19th century and disappeared altogether in the middle of the 20th century, although pantomimes continue to be presented without the harlequinade.

I think the lyrics might even support my theory. She also seems to be saying goodbye to us and maybe implying that this whole series was like a form of therapy for her?

"Goods" by iamamiwhoami

I come bearing legacy, that we caused your leaving our dawning land
I come with delivery, and I have wrapped it in my mourning band

I bring you my history that I expect your tender arms around it
Give it love and think of me
These are the letters from a compound

See the dawning of novelty (novelty)
Where we embrace the kind of subtlety (embrace those things) (the subtlety)
Time finally caught up with me (finally, caught, up, -with me)
Molded in the image of the feared fugitive (m-ooo-lded)

Toned down but playful
Say your greetings with goodbyes
Your cup is brim full
Sorrow sinking with a smile

(x2)
Now we found a cure
Tiny to be sure
Change is always given to decide just who it's for

Don't expect to hear from me
As I have got to feed our hungry mouths
I do enjoy your company
But we must work to keep you content

I see the better and the worse in me (and the worst in me) (the worst in me)
I embrace the kind of subtlety (embrace those things) (the subtlety)
Courage finally caught up with me (finally, caught, up, -with me)
Molded in the image of the feared fugitive (m-ooo-lded)

(x5)
Now we found a cure
Tiny to be sure
Change is always given to decide just who it's for

Toned down but playful
Say your greetings with goodbyes
Your cup is brim full
Sorrow sinking with a smile

[HunterGather]

Yeah, that makes sense (it being an epilogue of sorts).
Doesn't give me closure or explain anything, though!

Anyway, their site now has a shop with the album and merch and concerts (only the 2 previously announced ones listed).
I don't care for the merch, to be honest. It's TOO minimal.
http://towhomitmayconcern.cc/

Also, deets of the project:

iamamiwhoami is:
Artist: Jonna Lee
Songwriter: Jonna Lee & Claes Björklund
Producer: Claes Björklund & Jonna Lee

Visual team:
Director: Robin Kempe-Bergman
Camera & photography: John Strandh
Set, costume, & make up design: Agustin Moreaux
Producer: Jonna Lee

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Oh, wow. It's kinda cool to know who was behind all of this aside from Jonna. With this big reveal, and the lyrical references to a "goodbye" of sorts, I wonder if this really is the end of the project.

Robin Kempe-Bergman appears to be a music video/commercial director. You can see some of his/her work here. The video for Kent's "Hjarta" certainly bares a resemblance to the iamamiwhoami look. I imagine R K-B will be in high demand after this reveal.

The production designer, Agustin Moreaux doesn't have a lot of credits on imdb, but I imagine that will change as well.

Claes Björklund has either played or produced for Ron Sexsmith, Travis, Martha Wainwright and, of course, Jonna Lee. Many more to come, I'm sure.

Robin Kempe-Bergman's video for Kent's "Hjarta"...

[HunterGather]

Yeah I already knew about Claes Bjorkland (he's her boyfriend/husband too).

I just ordered my cd+dvd from their site. Comes with a free digital download as well!

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Ah, did not know that. Were the credits revealed before this? I thought this was new info.

[HunterGather]

I found out through Tumblr sometime back.

And new promo pics:

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Oh yeah, vaguely recall all that facial recognition sleuthing that went on last year.

Love the second to last pic. She's getting all maternal with her cube!

[paulb]

Really solid album from beginning to end. Such a different feel from all the early singles she came out. Hopefully this is not the end of the project.

[HunterGather]

The cd/dvd has no new material and the booklet just has pictures of the single covers inside.
Lame.

[HunterGather]

DVD menu

[Justin170]

Kin is my pick for 2012 thus far.

[HunterGather]

Finally recieved my copy in the mail!

It's really cool to watch them all seamlessly edited together.

While I always figured, it's even more obvious that the entire KIN series is basically jonna walking around her apartment and then driving out to the woods for a while then coming back (i guess).
(the sideways shot in GOOD WORKER is her driving the car. She was never dragged through the woods).

But that doesn't explain the other people in the apartment building and the little girl/clump thing across the street.

The transition from In Due Order to Idle Talk says that Play/In Due Order was in her mind.

As you can see here, how it echos in.



And I guess the significance of the Ikea shelf was the whole cube thing.



I wonder if she jumped out of her window...

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Cool. Thanks for sharing, Hunter.

[HunterGather]

iamamiwhoami; in concert: FreeFormFestival, Poland, October 12-13, 2012



There shows are very wide apart for now. August, september, october.
They will totally be at Coachella, Sasquatch, MoogFest, or a few solo shows in the U.S. (hopefully)

[HunterGather]

Their upcoming concert is in 5 days in Sweden.

Also, here is the first of 3 upcoming interviews (the other 2 are from The Guardian and Dazed, coming soon).

(translated)



It was a long kept secret who was behind the project iamamiwhoami, whose videos went viral on the internet. But now the debut album ”Kin” is out and Jonna Lee is ready to talk.

The story begins with an empty apartment and before it ends in a black box, the blonde manages to dance (or fight or sleep) with Wookie-like creatures, take the form of one of the beastly figures herself, wander in the desert in just her underwear and maybe, or maybe not, commit suicide by jumping from a window. The album “Kin” is hard to categorize. It hovers somewhere between music video and video art, between short film and performance, and is built around a series of short movies that taken together build a narrative.

The project iamamiwhoami was started almost three years ago, and from the beginning, who was behind the electronica videos that regularly showed up on Youtube was kept a secret.

People made all sorts of speculations: Trent Reznor? The Knife? Christina Aguilera’s management received so many questions about the project that they delivered an official denial. It wasn’t until the woman in the video clips revealed herself without makeup that anyone recognized her. It was the Swedish Jonna Lee, who had previously done singer-songwriter pop and sang a duet with Ed Harcourt.

– I had a craving to do something new. Something creative, exciting. And I had an idea for some music that didn’t fit with what I was doing at the time, tells Jonna Lee when we met her in a studio just south of Stockholm.

The visual aspect is incredibly important for iamamiwhoami and it’s a part of the whole package. We would deliberate back and forth for a half-hour about how the photography was going to be before we’d finally agree.


This is the first real interview she’s given on the project. Only now that the videos have been released as a single album is Jonna Lee ready to talk about it. But all the hush-hush has been important from the start, she explains. When the idea was born, she and the team, which also consists of producer Claes Björklund, director Robin Kempe-Bergman, photographer John Strand and designer Agustin Moreaux, had to lock themselves away to work in peace.

– Being able to do it undisturbed was really important; it was the only was it could have happened.

Were you disappointed when people figured out it was you?

– We didn’t try to hide it. When it happened, it was pretty evidently me in the videos, so it didn’t really come as a shock. But in general everything became a lot different then, and it was almost that much more important to shut out the world in order to keep working.

You must have thought it was funny when people thought you were Christina Aguilera.

– I thought when all the empty talk had quieted down, what we had made would be what’s left. I heard the speculations; it was impossible to avoid them. There’s a certain comical synergistic effect in how all the hearsay can become a truth for people.

The iamamiwhoami videos also contain secrets. The first video clips were given numerical codes that the viewers gradually translated to words. They are full of recurring symbols: children; nature and trees; the hairy Wookie creatures; and, in the latest in the series of videos that became the album “Kin”, a black cube. The Youtube comments on the videos are full of speculations and theories about what it all means, and there are blogs completely dedicated to iamamiwhoami that upload stills from the videos and analyze them.

It’s all a little reminiscent of the skillfully crafted mystique around the TV series ”Lost”, where viewers were feverishly looking for clues and patterns but the answers that were given were never truly as satisfying as the mystery itself.

– That’s how it is even for me. If I gave all the answers, I wouldn’t be able to keep doing this. It’d be the last signature I write, says Jonna Lee.

Are you ever going to tie it all up in a bow and explain what it all means?

– It gives me a bad taste in my mouth just thinking about it. It’s like sharing your innermost secrets; that’s not particularly attractive for anyone. I don’t think the audience wants that, much less me. It would make me feel extremely naked and exposed.

[HunterGather]

They are performing right now.
Hmm.. They performed in the day light, and her band looks like they are going to play tennis. Not sure if like...