Album cover art: Metropolar by IIIFoet
“What happens to a mine / When all the gold is gone?” Weaving together 35 minutes of hand-drawn animations and a spoken-word script created 10 years ago, the multimedia project Metropolar is back in the form of IIIFoet – Jotam Schoeman (animation film, guitar and vocals), Modise Sekgothe (narrator and vocals) and James Robb (sound design). The three artists come together to create a soundscape that contains the tug and pull of the interconnectedness and apartness of the South African experience – here specifically focusing on the “polarities” contained within the country’s most commanding metropole, Johannesburg.
Of course, what happens in the spaces between interconnectedness and apartness, is movement: Modise Sekgothe’s spoken-word delivery is arresting, with lines like, “They will break into your car / And carve you out of your seat”, and yet it propels him and the audience forward; there’s a sense of being chased. Jotam Schoeman’s expressive drawings of inner-city Johannesburg are brimming with kinetic energy and take you along as though you are diving underwater – where there is “the river that runs / where there is no gold”. The spectator becomes part of the flow of minibus taxis and buildings in this “metropolar” transit, the immersive experience enhanced by the frenzied sounds of the city captured by James Robb.
Jotam Schoeman, Umlungu Deluxe (James Robb) and Modise Sekgothe performing Metropolar at Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2024.
Metropolar was first performed in 2014, and now returns – also in the form of an album released in June 2024. It is their collective growth in music creation that, according to the artists themselves, led to their settling on the project’s soundtrack. In a Q&A session following the performance, Woordfees Filmfees coordinator Jaco van der Merwe said that it can only be considered a masterpiece, and the beauty lies in the build-up, because there is no release. Over 10 years, each member of IIIFoet have, in their various artistic pursuits and learnings, laid layers to build the sonic frame that allows Metropolar to move between light and dark – with a maturity that takes 10 years to develop youthful, artistic pulsion into meditation.
Metropolar was shown and performed at Neelsie Cinema on Tuesday evening (1 October) as part of Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2024. Jotam Schoeman and Modise Sekgothe will participate in Worldplay on 3 October at the Daisy Jones Bar – a Woordfees event hosted in collaboration with Wêreld.
***
The city sings in sirens,
Accompanied by screams.
The symphonies of violence
A music made by thieves.
They’ve taken my appliance,
In defiance of my pleas.
They will take what they require,
And retire as they flee.
They will break into your car,
And carve you out of your seat.
They will replace you on the tar,
And charge away at the speed,
Of a light they’ve never seen.
The dark is their delight,
In a night of stolen dreams.
– From “Part V: City sings”, Metropolar (album released in 2024)
Also read:
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2024: ’n onderhoud met Jaco van der Merwe
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2024: Othello – an Instagram review
Marie se laaste dag by Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2024: ’n kort resensie van ’n kortfilm
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2024: ’n onderhoud met Schalk Joubert