1 GIANT LEAP play this video Director: Jamie Catto Director: Duncan Bridgeman
It is increasingly rare to come across a project that genuinely defies description, where no pigeonhole will do.
The members of 1 Giant Leap, while pushing the cutting-edge technology of the 21st century to its limit and utilizing their own fierce intelligence and consummate musicality plus a list of collaborators ranging from Michael Stipe to Kurt Vonnegut, Asha Bhosle to Dennis Hopper, have done just that.
Others taking part include Stewart Copeland, Brian Eno, Baaba Maal, Tom Robbins, Maxi Jazz from Faithless, Neneh Cherry, The Mahotella Queens, Speech from Arrested Development, Andy Summers, Eddi Reader and Linton Kwezi Johnson.
1 Giant Leap are Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman, who first met at a mutual friend's flat in Brighton and found that they shared a deep love for two universally influential albums: David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Peter Gabriel's Passion, the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. They talked about music, technology, travel, the universe and their mutual dream of travelling the world, recording and filming as many of their heroes from the areas of music, art, science, literature and philosophy as they could find, seeking out the unity in the diversity. Luckily Palm Pictures boss Chris Blackwell shared their vision and offered them a contract.
Catto and Bridgeman did not draw their impressive list of collaborators from their personal address books; rather, they were forced to became "world champion cold callers." Dennis Hopper was so enthused by the project that he immediately got on the phone with Harvey Keitel and Meryl Streep to get them involved.
1 Giant Leap is a unique project for the 21st century which fuses words, sounds, rhythms and images from across the globe to celebrate the creative diversity of musicians, storytellers, authors, filmmakers, artists and thinkers from cultures around the world. The results illustrate breathtaking artistic and cultural diversity with a clear message of unity running throughout.
This project is the first of its kind, both in its immense terms of reference and its revolutionary use of cutting-edge technology. Having taken their backing tracks with them, the musicians were able to not only collaborate on 1 Giant Leap songs, but also to hear the sounds previous collaborators had been inspired to lay down. For instance, a sarangi player in india could play to the grooves laid down a week earlier by Ugandan drummers. Thus each track grew and developed as the duo circled the globe.
Catto and Bridgeman's adventures served as the basis for their 12-chapter film and accompanying album. Each film chapter corresponds to a track on the album, exploring themes such as "Masks and Roles," "Death and Change," "Freedom and Innocence," and "The Shadow and Inspiration." Containing footage from the streets of New York to the jungles of Ghana, the mountains of Nepal to the deserts of Rajsthan, 1 Giant Leap represents is a completely new genre of filmmaking somewhere between documentary and pop video, a music-based time capsule of the planet earth at the turn of the 21st century.
About the the members: Jamie Catto: musician, film director, editor, photographer and creative catalyst
As founder member and art director of the hugely successful dance-pop group Faithless, Catto has enjoyed no fewer than five top ten singles in the U.K., watching two albums go gold and enjoying enormous success around the world playing to crowds of up to 80, 000 fans. In the role of art director for Faithless' cheeky label, Catto has directed videos for all their artists -- each of them to huge critical acclaim -- including the group's stunning sign language film for "God Is a DJ." His photos and designs have also adorned the covers of Skinny's Failure and Faithless' Sunday 8pm.
Duncan Bridgeman: artist, producer, multi-instrumentalist
