As a current on-going project, P A R A D I S E F A U X is a concept album that explores the sharp ends of the modern underground youth culture in London. Rather than focusing on any particular character, this album is submerged in situations, mental states, taboos and dogmas; such as social standing, rebellion, hedonism, street life, gang culture, drugs, psychology and escapism.
The visual language of the album explores a colour-spat dystopia; grimy urban landscapes, street art, open blue skies, concrete, stone, metal and graffiti. This urban aesthetic is infused with the multi-coloured mood of a fair-ground carnival that has long since left the scene, involving balloons and fluorescent paint. A type of grunger’s urban Eden. The tangled balloons, greenish colour tones of mould and greasy children’s stickers, juxtaposed with the gritty landscape, suggest an ever-weakening hold to a fading inner child.
The title of the project, ‘Paradise Faux’, states that modern the youth-cultures constantly strive to make a paradise out of what they can through escapism and hedonism, yet this paradise is ultimately artificial, illusionary and ephemeral; with the underlining life lesson that real worldly paradise can never truly be achieved. Visually this is suggested by the garish and burnt-out urban carnival style, and musically through deep and exotic trip-hop beats and high hazy symphonies that swell and then burn out.
Whilst exploring the visual style of this project I modelled in a small photoshoot (shot by Paulius Rudokas), and created a simple installation of a large group of multi-coloured balloons anchored to the ground by a brick. One by one the strong winds that day forced the balloons down and burst them against the rough tarmac. Each balloon symbolized a youth in a self-contained ‘fake paradise’, and once popped the youth is unwillingly broken free into the harsh realities of the world, swiftly dispersing to become one with the air. A necessary paradox of both sadness and joy.
Concept Art.
