MODERN SOUNDTRACKS TO A TIMELESS PAST 

Music's capacity to create strong emotional connections becomes even more obvious when you add a visual dimension like the videos of ROCKY RIVER RADIO provide.

To borrow a thought from South African musicologist Sheldon Rocha Leal: "Music in audio form, exclusively, is like radio: theatre of the mind...the music video, however, gives the consumer a visual representation of what initially resided within the author’s mind...If the artist also happens to be the author of the music...they are getting a truer representation of what the composer was trying to communicate."

While today's online digital landscape makes video look like promotional wallpaper ROCKY RIVER RADIO flips that script. Drawing its narratives from the archives of American filmmaking—be it popular animated shorts and so-called "looney tunes" of the thirties or the moody ambience of a 1950s experimental black-and-white film—composer Jürgen Kalwa was able to tap into his experience as a video producer to create a set of unique mixed-media vignettes. They add a visual identity to his "theatre of the mind".

And they actually work in two directions at the same time. On the one hand, they add a cinematic retro touch to the music. And on the other hand, the music serves as a modern soundtrack to a set of timeless moving images from the past.