Featuring a String Quartet Arrangement, "All That Running Around" Sees Bijou Noir Breaking New Sonic and Lyrical Ground
Written on a ukulele in a remote village in the mountains of Andalusia as well as a rocky coastline in Croatia, and recorded in Los Angeles, "All That Running Around" is propelled by pulsing drums, stabbing synths, and a string quartet arrangement by Bijou Noir alum Ray Minge.
Contemplating community, belonging, and cultural identity, Bijou Noir’s Augustus Watkins has taken time to re-examine his own status, privilege, and uncertain future. These deeply personal themes became even more culturally relevant as the world self-isolated in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and as Americans continued to address their own relationships with white supremacy.
If you caught Bijou Noir during COVID-20, Sanctuary Festival, or another livestream event, now is your chance to hear "All That Running Around" in its completed form.
I didn't expect living somewhere so beautiful would be so isolating. I’m in Andalusia, Spain and the locals are not used to people who look like us, and for the most part, seem skeptical.
Even as an outsider you can tell the deep traditions that bind these people together — and set you apart. One day I hear a group of men singing a group of jaunty songs with complex and haunting harmonies. I venture downhill, following the music, and find they’re practicing for an annual festival that happens in the spring. They’re excited to tell me all about it, and seem genuinely interested in showing it to me. I realize that by participating in this ancient festival, I’ll know more about this place and the people, but I’ll be out of the country by then.
One day a few months earlier, in a different country, I struck up a conversation with a local as I was walking along the shore. He asked where I was from, and I hesitated before I could answer. Oddly, he may have been the first person to ask me that since I’d left home, and I wasn’t sure how to answer. If we’d have still been in Minneapolis, I could have said “Nokomis” or if we’d have been in the Midwest I could have said “Minneapolis,” but we were so far away from all that, that I didn’t feel I had an appropriate landmark. He playfully mocked me for hesitating to answer, like, How could you not know where you’re from? I felt a little lost, but at least I learned how to answer that question in the future. And, anyway, I’m here now.
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