José González Subject of a New Documentary

By Frederik Egerstrand

What do you know about swedish musician José González? Probably not all that much aside from his work as a solo artist and his new/old band Junip. Well, we're about to know a whole lot more about González with the debut of a documentary called The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of José González. The film is the product of three years of work compiling video diaries, surveillance camera footage, concert footage, tour documentation and animation. It follows him through scenes shot during work on his second album, In Our Nature. Through a diary, based on personal voice recordings, the piece captures González's everyday reflections from thoughts on a photon's path from the sun to our eyes to Darwinism to the struggle to write songs.

It was shot on location in Sweden, Japan, Singapore, United States, South Africa, England, Chile and Argentina. Mikel Cee Karisson and Fredrik Egerstrand directed the film and Erik Hemmendorff produced it for Plattform Produktion. Karisson has made videos for González as well as Fever Ray, among others.

See the teaser trailer for The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of José González after the hop.

In a press release, Director Karisson says,

There is something absurd, fascinating and beautiful in our attempts to find meaning in our existence. With The Extraordinary ordinary life of José González, we wanted to give form to the personal artistic process. How personal reflection and everyday fragments of life shapes our input and output.

The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of José González is currently being shown at festivals throughout Europe. Learn more about the film at the official site.

Junip will release their debut album Fields on September 14th. More info on that here.