‘The Very Eye of Night’ is an experimental film by Maya Deren made in 1958. Her last completed film, the film was made in collaboration with Metropolitan Opera Ballet School. The projection is in negative.The film was made between 1952 and 1955 in collaboration with choreographer Antony Tudor, though it was not released until 1959 when the original musical score by Teiji Ito was added. The film was initially premiered on 3 May 1958 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

This is the second Deren film that I’ve used to improvise a a soundtrack over using mainly the Anxiety Machine. The first is HERE

The first version worked quite well but following a conversation with AEP, she provided a self penned voice performance, integrating the film and sound into the broader ORGASMUSLIEDER project, exploring the power of the Orgone as defined by Wilhelm Reich.

The ‘Orgone’ energy outside of the body is described as blue, colouring the sky & the universe beyond. Here this corresponds to the dance of the constellations in Deren’s film and the Lapis Lazuli of the lyric. He called it “orgone energy” or “orgone radiation”, and the study of it “orgonomy”. Reich said he had seen orgone when he injected his mice with bions and in the sky at night through an “organoscope”, a special telescope. He argued that it is in the soil and air (indeed, is omnipresent), is blue or blue-grey, and that humanity had divided its knowledge of it in two: aether for the physical aspect and God for the spiritual. The colour of the sky, the northern lights, St Elmo’s Fire, and the blue of sexually excited frogs are manifestations of orgone, he wrote.

Dark Matter of the era, deep ultramarine holding life together. I have taken the liberty of moving Deren’s film to a blue tint.

LAPISLAZULI ORR
Early love stories
By Antonella Eye POrcelluzzi 2020
For « The Very Eye of Night » film Soundtrack By T.R. Hand and Glove of Bones 2020

1.
I enter a shop
To buy a present
Antiquity shop

I talk to the keeper
I suddenly say
He is a Buddha

He doesn’t react
Just a look
And he goes
To the shop window

From the inside he
Takes an object
Lapislazuli Lapislazuli

He says
I don’t know
How much it’s worth

Maybe nothing
Maybe a lot

He wants me to keep it
To keep it with me

I want you to keep it
To keep it with you

I keep it I keep it

Lapislazuli
Still
Good faithful gift
It is still with me

2.
Parfum
Gitan
Au Romarin
Ça sent bon
Je ne suis rien
Rien n’est ce corps
Qui change

Sur le balcon
L’homme me regarde
Quand je passe
Je regarde pas
Rosa mon amie
Est surprise
Qu’il s’intéresse
À moi
Rose le connait
Sait ce qu’il fait
Ce qu’il lui plait
Je suis trop pure
Elle nous présente
Il porte une cape
Rosa est jalouse

Le jour d’après
Il sonne chez moi
Il m’amène sur le quai
Puis sur un vieux bateau
Il m’embrasse
Surprise du baiser
Mon premier baiser
Se mélange au café
Dans sa bouche
Je me retire
Je ne bois
Pas encore
De café
Il fume

On se promène
C’est déjà le soir
On est encore
Ensemble
Maison d’amis
Sur le port
Musique étrange
Mystérieuse fascinante peureuse
Envoutante
La musique envoutante
Entre directe
Dans ma tête
Je la chercherai
Je la retrouverai
Plus tard
On quitte la fille et la mère célibataire
Les garçons aux jambes longues
On sort par la porte
Suivis par la fumée
Et par la lune

Je rentre en silence
Chez ma grand-mère
Je ne salue même pas
Il a léché mes mains
Il a caressé ma robe
Il a adoré mon cou
Je m’assois
Devant la télé
Pendants que les autres
Distraits
Discutent

Je suis
Entourée par les voix
C’est temps de partir
Dans une autre ville

Mon père m’y amène
Un jour
On mange un parfait bouillon
Je parle beaucoup
Pendants le voyage
Je ris tout le temps
Au retour

Au retour
Devant ma fenêtre
Il fait des tours
En moto
Sur une seule roue
Il est triste
Plus que moi

La vie dans la nouvelle ville
Je ne mange plus
Je n’ai plus d’amis
Puis on m’invite à sortir
On visite les supermarchés
On vole des cosmétiques
Carla
Qu’on n’utilise pas
On est bandits on est pirates
On sauve le monde
Avec notre dégaine

Carla me parle de sexe
Devant les collines
Elle dit
Il ne faut pas en avoir peur
A l’air très sage
Moi le dos courbé
Je l’ai fait bien plus tard
Une nuit dans un jardin
Mais déjà là
À ce moment
j’ai repris à manger

Lui je l’ai quitté
J’ai fuit
Je suis revenue
Pour voir
S’il était là
Il n’y était plus

Beaucoup plus tard
Ma boule de douleur
Pressée
A éclaté
Je me suis mise à aimer.

(Gipsy Perfume
Au Romarin
It smells good
I am nothing
Nothing is this body
That changes

On the balcony
The man looks at me
When I pass by
I’m not looking at
Rosa my friend Is surprised
That he cares
For me
Rose knows him
Knows what he’s doing
What he likes
I am too pure

She introduces us
He’s wearing a cape
Rosa is jealous

The day after that
He rings at my house
Takes me to the dock
Then to an old boat
He kisses me
Surprised by the kiss
My first kiss
Blends with the coffee
In his mouth
I detouch
I don’t drink
Not yet
Any coffee
He smokes

Walking around
It’s already the evening
We are still
Together
His friend’s house
On the port
Strange music
Mysterious fascinating scared
Bewitching
The bewitching music
Direct entry
Into my head
I’ll look for it
I’ll find it again
Later
We leave the girl and the single mother
The boys with the long legs
We go out of the door
Followed by the smoke
And by the moon

I return in silence
To my grand-mother’s house
I don’t even salute
He licked my hands
He caressed my dress
He adored my neck
I just sit down
In front of the TV
While the others
Inattentive
Discuss

I am
Surrounded by the voices
It’s time to move
To another city

My father takes me there
One day
We eat a perfect broth
I talk a lot
During the journey
I laugh all the time
On the way back

Back
In front of my window
He’s doing rounds
On a motorcycle
On a single wheel
He is sad
More than me

Life in the new city
I don’t eat anymore
I don’t have any friend
Then I’m invited out
We visit the supermarkets
We are stealing cosmetics
Carla
That we don’t use
We’re bandits we’re pirates
We save the world
With our face

Carla talks with me about sex
In front of the hills
She says
Don’t be afraid of it
She seems very wise
Me, my back bent
I did it much later
One night in a garden
But already there
At that time
I started again to eat

Him, I left him
I ran away
I came back
To see
If he were still there
He wasn’t there
Anymore

Much later
My ball of
Pressed Pain
Burst
I started to love.)

3.
I see
A collective mind
Connecting
Directly
With the Blue

The ‘ORGASMUSLIEDER’ by Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi is currently running to two volumes and can be found below.

Volume One

Volume Two