From WA, With Love: RTRFM's 'Postcards From The West'

A fresh fundraising event from one of Perth’s (Boorloo) premier community radio stations, RTRFM, Postcards from the West will take over the historic Camelot Cinema this Saturday 21 September, in an audiovisual exploration of WA history.

A collaboration between the station, the State Library of Western Australia, and the Perth International Jazz Festival, Postcards features archival footage of WA, soundtracked by some of the state’s most innovative musical talents.

The event will showcase the musical stylings of Jameson Feakes, Great Statue, Pale Ribbons Tossed Into The Dark, and Slow Point, traversing a variety of genres in a synthy, atmospheric, guitar-kissed sonic venture.

Artists were given the opportunity to pore through previously unseen film from the State Library’s archives, with the selected films highlighting WA’s coast, people, and cityscape.

Annika Moses, aka Great Statue, says they were personally drawn to a piece of film called South West Wonderland, a promotional video showcasing Minang Noongar landscapes in the state’s south, around Albany (Kinjarling) and Denmark (Kwoorabup).

“It features a lot of smiling children in dinky knitted jumpers with bows in their hair,” Moses explains, “warm-faced mothers and stern fathers, happy white families out picnicking, fishing and swimming in the ocean. It's strange and uncomfortable viewing at times, but it also epitomises the laid-back South West lifestyle and really pushes the holiday-destination angle.

“I love the grain of the film, the wobbles and blips, and the close-up water shots the most; crashing waves on grey cliffs, patterned cascades running down dam walls, white foam washing back and forth.”

Moses says the creative process they employed was comparable to their previous work composing for film, theatre, and dance, but overall was different to how they usually “approach sound-making”.

“Sounds take on new meaning when heard in conjunction with video. It's been a really fun process of finding unexpected alliances between the two mediums throughout the preparation process.”

And what kind of sounds can we expect on Saturday? Great Statue’s signature electro-pop and experimental ambience will hopefully make an appearance, but fans can also expect something new.

“The piece that I'll be performing on Saturday night is a kind of electronic collage of existing material, as well as some new bits and pieces. The project Great Statue has always been very place-based, with very obvious references in songs such as West Coast Blues and Make Amends With the Sun, so it fits well with the theme of South West Wonderland.

“But the footage itself is much more nature-based and family-orientated than the usual Statue, glimmering under a disco light with sunglasses and slicked hair. You'll instead be seeing the elusive ambient Statue; more vulnerable, soft, reflective and slow-moving sounds, soaked with nostalgia and lo-fi hum.”

On the event as a whole, Moses says it’s an evening of “stunning archival footage, new music from some of Boorloo's finest improvising musicians, all housed in the iconic Camelot Cinema. What's not to love?!” 

‘Postcards From The West’ is on at Camelot Cinema, Mosman Park on Saturday 21 September. Tickets can be found here.