DRIFT is a collaboration started in 1991 between visual artist Leah Singer and musician and poet Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. DRIFT is an immersive sonic/visual environment consisting of music, sounds and texts by Ranaldo in response to two 16mm analytical film projectors performed in real time by Singer. Much as a DJ scratches a vinyl record, Singer manipulates her films in a live improvisation with Ranaldo's guitar, poetry and soundscapes.
As a winter storm approaches the shallow water crystallizes, ice builds up along the edges of a stream, and the first snowflakes of the storm layer over the newly formed ice. The following morning a soft light approaches through the snow covered forest.
A slug climbs small mountains at the peak of Mount Greylock (3,489 ft).
In the early 1900s commercial loggers cut down an old growth spruce tree growing on a small island surrounded by tide pools on the coast of Maine. Out of the trunk of this ancient tree grew two new trees, side by side.
A close look at flowers and pollinators on a sunny summer morning.
As the day comes to an end deer graze on a hillside, wild turkeys pass through a grassy field, and the full moon rises.
A squatter spends his days with his dog in a decrepit, abandoned house until a discovery entices him out.
Sunlight in a winter forest.
Observations on one of the hottest days of the year
Mountain wildflowers in a dense fog.
Shot on 16mm film in New York and composed in Berlin, the work explores polarizing themes of the metropolis. Audibly and visually, the viewer is put in a flicker between serenity and intensity; harrowing ambience cut with sharp beeps, vulnerable steps mashed in high velocity.
A short film shot on 16mm about memory, grieving, and siblinghood.
Clouds forming and moving through the summer sky.
A study of the seashore in mid-coast Maine.
A golden sunrise brings light to the foggy hills and meadows of late summer.
A short film featuring a coastal forest and the rocky coastline of downeast Maine.
In a courtyard somewhere in Washington D.C., Senator Stevens walks and talks with President Nixon in this brief silent color film.
Morning dew in summer fields and meadows.
A short film featuring a pebble beach and coastal salt marsh in Maine.