Jean-Marc Lederman Experience
“The Last Broadcast On Earth”
multiplatform (digipak/website/videogame)
“Time passes, inexorably passes – and I can do nothing about it,” says Tom Shear in his love letter ‘I Love You Sandy’. Earth without a doubt needs to reconnect itself through concept albums like this one. See it as a (mental) healing process – used over and over again, until the mind of each human being re-clicks into doing noble things, constructive things, ridding itself of all the distorted views of the world. It may sound utopian (pathetic even), but enthusiasm is no crime – we all want world peace. We want to mean it, breathe it, and experience it. We want others to do the same… And be happy. Truly happy. This is one such attempt – it may even sound desperate in that “one last cry” confronting us with grim reality, but the album’s intention is from the heart and into the open. World, are you listening?
Described as a multisensory musical adventure, “The Last Broadcast On Earth” may ride it both ways – as an optimistic message or its remains discovered in the cataclysmic aftermath; many of these “broadcasts” indeed sound like ear-pleasant farewells, which – according to the title – was probably the intention. A variety of artists contribute to Jean-Marc Lederman’s vision, in their mutual, global transmission – in the author’s own words, the album gathers 13 singers and bands from 8 countries, 4 languages and 3 different continents, from Japan to the USA and Italy or India, inviting the listener to join in for a late night drive on a deserted road and listening to the only radio station on air….
Listening to this collection, it is inevitable to think of dystopian futuristic scenes from “Blade Runner” or even more properly “The Time Machine”, in which George is introduced to the talking rings by the Eloi, who look up to these rings’ messages as relevant despite them being mere remains from eons ago… Melodically, most pieces reflect uncertainty that keeps floating in the air – extracts that are taken out of their original context (be it commercials, poem, cartoon or film environment) to be given a new social (if not entirely political) meaning.
Thus its focus is on snippets rather than songs, creating the atmosphere of an epic multi-format radio-drama. Sharing a moment with the rest of the world – a collection of (pleasant) warnings about life’s extremes, the multimedia traps we’re caught up with, turned into mass-consumerist mutants, drowning in the superficiality of it all – be it feeling or contact. We shouldn’t take anything for granted (“concentrate – life is easy, life is great”) – and remember that famous lyric-line from Joni Mitchell; “… don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve lost til it’s gone?”.
Communicate, participate, interact and create, establish a proper dialogue. Like this album suggests – and does.
Interactive link: http://www.jmlederman.com/
