EVIDENCE

Evidence with Patti Smith

Between 2019 and 2021, Stephan Crasneanscki and Patti Smith collaborated on the creation of Perfect Vision: a triptych of albums which take their inspiration from the writings of three emblematic French poets: Antonin Artaud, Arthur Rimbaud and René Daumal. Central to the work was the poets’ necessity to travel to different lands to acquire a new vision and perspective on themselves and their art. Recorded in the Sierra Tarahumara of Mexico, the Abyssinian valley of Ethiopia, and the Himalayan Summit of India respectively, the core idea is that each landscape holds sleeping memories that arethe witness of human passage.

Produced with Russell Elevado, Leonardo Heiblum, Nicolas Becker and Soundwalk Collective’s Simone Merli, each album retraces the poets’ footsteps, channelled through on-location recorded soundscapes and musicalities, in search of hidden, earthy sounds that hold embedded existence, with Patti Smith revisiting the poets’ words that have been inspired by the landscapes. The result is a sound and visual montage that traverses the works of Rimbaud, Artaud and Daumal in their voyage to elsewhere.