Venerable repository of high weirdness Laughing Squid recently circulated this video by Stockholm's mind-blowing Kollectivet Livet arts braintrust. It's a brief and riveting tune made entirely from the sounds generated by the physical manipulation of condoms. Intended for the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, it was ultimately unused. Recently, Kollectivet Livet member Alexander Culafic discussed about the genesis of the video in this exclusive interview.

What was the inspiration for the video?

“All the other mashupvideos of one guy/girl doing all the sounds for a song themselves that are on YouTube right now.”

How many edits did it take to produce the desired musical effect, and how long did it take to shoot?

“Not that many, actually. It worked out pretty much as we planned. We shot it in one day; it took two days to fix the sound and another two days for editing.”

How many condoms were used to make the music?

“Ha ha. Well, in the trial stage, many! Like 10 packs of them at least…we tried every possible way imaginable to make instruments/sounds.”

Who of the Kollektivet is actually in the video?

“The one guy blowing up the condom is actually Robin (Ekenstam) from Skuggan but the voice is from my colleague Georg (Herlitz).

What was the point of the video – the music in itself, or the message?

“This was actually a concept sketch video for our idea we had for the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education. At first we wanted to make music out of dildos and other sex toys. We tried to make a violin play with a vibrator and it worked kinda…but then when we contacted the RFSU, they wanted us to use condoms, so we did. So the message was the main focus, but to make it worth watching we knew that the music had to be really good as well.”

How long did it take for the video to get picked up and propagate online?

“Less than a week.”

Is there a longer version of the condom music – and is this coming out as a single?

“Ha ha. No – but maybe we should…”

The Swedes: as good at sexuality awareness as they are at making great music.

Photograph: Adam Jones – adamjones.freeservers.com (source: Wikimedia Commons)

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