It is about that feeling you get when you have the guts to pass through a barrier -- like riding a wave. Sometimes you don't plan on passing through the barrier. You just let your defenses down and go with your gut.
That's how the Snake Handlers write and record their music --
no preconceived notions ... no songs are written ahead of their
recording. They're handlin' snakes and speaking the voice of
immortality through foreign tongues. Just like the feeling of falling
through a hole, or jumping from a cliff ... they're jumping to the
other side of reality.
This song was written and recorded live
... exactly as you hear it. No overdubs, mixing, or knob twiddlin'.
The experiment for the movie and soundtrack started in 1994. There had never been a music video created for distribution over the world wide web. We wanted to pioneer the project. Our initial goal was to combine live action footage, animation and a soundtrack.
Here is how we described the experiment in 1995:
The live action "Bert Base Jump" footage was shot in New Mexico and ftp'ed (sent over the internet in avi file format as
berthole.avi) to Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. The soundtrack music was converted to wav files in Blue Bell, PA
and then ftp'ed to Fort Washington. From there the pieces were ftp'ed to Philadelphia where they were
combined and shipped back to Fort Washington. The entire process, from getting people on-line to "burning rom",
took one year. Along the way, we were forced to rely on floppies, cdrom and snailmail. But, despite the
overwhelming odds, we were able to pass through the barriers and produce the first ever "made by the internet
and for the internet" multimedia production.
Now, the final leg of berthole.avi's journey will be through the 'net, and to your eyes and ears as streaming video or an MP4 download. We hope you enjoy it... we hope it inspires you to do something.