The Art of Failure

Paul Allen Anderson is a songwriter and musician who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He sings and plays most of the instruments, besides drums, on his tracks for THE ART OF FAILURE. Inspired by melodists from Burt Bacharach to Belle and Sebastian, his music for the film puts a premium on the basics of melodic pop tunefulness. By contrast, the lyrics pull away from the surrounding prettiness to reflect on the value of Morton Feldman's proto-minimalist music for driving in snowstorms while romantically frustrated, the predicament of the club kid in the age of waterboarding, and the question of whether beauty can overcome the bottomless grief of a particular Agnes Varda film. Paul Anderson also teaches American Studies and African-American Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is the author of Deep River: Music and Memory in Harlem Renaissance
and numerous essays and reviews on music, literature, and film. Paul is currently writing a book on the dreamlife of modern jazz and working on a documentary about jazz in 1959.

 Music videos:

Complicated                

 Catch of the day

I could know you    

Club Design