Can a body be ethical?
Or, what is entailed in an ‘ordinary ethics’ of the body, of bodies in motion?
Maybe we can imagine it, but can we get going?
Breath in through the nose, out through the mouth.
Animate those shared movements, gestures, rhythms and pace. Attend, to subtle changes of space and proximity. Extend, retract. Arms, legs, shoulders - flubbery small intestines, bouncing like an accordion. Burst capillaries and soft cells, churning round in the ‘pit’.
There is a hardcore choreography, most of us have learnt some moves over the years, Michael Kasparis no doubt knows it well. At times this particularly choreography moves into familiar body-slams of machismo, ‘taps aff’, hardness, unrelationality; at others it pulls in, rather than pushing out.
Apostille’s live sets have often played on these traditions of confrontation and exertion, but with a self-deprecating, ironic and sometimes angry humour.
He describes his recent subtle pivots, away from irony and towards new album Choose Life, with joy and honesty:
Choose Life started off differently to what it became. Originally, I had intended the title to be ironic, it was written during a troubled, chaotic time when sometimes Life was the last thing I wanted to live. As it evolved, Choose Life lost its irony and became 8 songs that document trying to get as much out everything as you can, when you can. It became a call to arms, it became George Michael, not Trainspotting. Like the music and Apostille in general, it became about direct action, about shearing yourself of your doubts and just being, becoming.
The first video is Feel Bad, which I made with a whole bunch of friends.
In a world “in which the moral good is often challenging to discern and more challenging to achieve”: we feel bad, but move well. And, ‘becoming’ isn’t singular, but collective, joyful and militant.
Choose Life is out on June 8 on Upset The Rhythm.
More about: Apostille
