NorthVariations

The Twelve is a charcoal triptych by Jorge Da Cruz, created as a visual companion to the film of the same name—a collaboration with composer Federico Albanese. The drawing was made in response to Albanese’s piece “North Variations,” part of a soundtrack album shaped around stories of memory, resilience, and ancestral knowledge.

Jorge da Cruz (b. 1974)
North Variations – The Twelve (for Federico Albanese soundtrack), 2019
Charcoal on paper, 120 × 278 cm (triptych)
© k37 studio, Bethanien Art Center, Berlin

North Variations – The Twelve
Text by Jorge da Cruz

This drawing unfolds across three panels, each with its own atmosphere, yet connected through rhythm and emotion—much like the music that inspired it. North Variations was created in response to Federico Albanese’s The Twelve, a soundtrack built around personal stories, memory, and movement. I wanted this drawing to follow that same emotional path—expansive, reflective, and deeply human.

On the left panel, I drew a quiet Nordic landscape—open, still, and balanced. It holds a sense of calm, where human presence seems to live in quiet harmony with the land. On the right, things begin to shift. The landscape fragments. Houses float, figures drift. It’s a space of movement and displacement—not chaotic, but shaped by survival. A story of migration, of adapting, of searching for footing.

At the center of the triptych, two figures stand facing upward, arms raised. It’s not quite prayer, not quite dialogue—something in between. They look beyond the frame, as if asking, hoping, or reaching for something unknown. That moment is the core of the drawing: quiet and full of longing. These figures don’t take over the scene, but they hold it together—bridging sky and ground, the human and the mysterious.

Behind them, a towering form rises. It’s part monument, part spirit. It grounds the entire composition, holding the tension between the ordered calm on the left and the unstable terrain on the right. Still and steady, it feels both timeless and human—like a keeper of memory, a silent witness to both belonging and change.

This drawing mirrors what I feel in Albanese’s music: a weaving together of stories, places, and gestures. Each track in The Twelve is tied to a person—artists, elders, culture-bearers. The music becomes a kind of moving portrait, intimate and vast at once.

North Variations was directly inspired by Lyudmila Khomovna of the Uilta people in Siberia. Her presence, as Albanese described, was warmth in the middle of harshness—softness that survives even in the coldest places. Another track, The Stars We Follow, follows the movements of Aoki Hiroyuki in Japan—his martial-arts-based practice becoming a meditation on direction, described by Albanese as “chasing the stars.”

For me, charcoal was the only medium that made sense for this world. Its density, its softness, the way it holds texture—it doesn’t just illustrate, it breathes. In this triptych, I used it to create something that feels both intimate and wide, quiet but heavy with presence. Every mark carries its own weight, becoming part of a structure built from memory, distance, and story.

JC

Federico Albanese – North Variation (Official Music Video)
Artwork for The Twelve Official Soundtrack, 2019

Drawing by Jorge da Cruz
Animation by Maria Lanowski

North Variation – Video Collaboration
Text by Jorge da Cruz

North Variation is part of The Twelve, a soundtrack by Federico Albanese that also stands on its own as a powerful musical work. When Federico invited me to collaborate on the visuals for this piece, I was immediately drawn in—not just by the music itself, but by the stories and emotions behind it. Each track in The Twelve is connected to a real person—someone whose life, memory, or movement left a mark on the sound. My task was to respond to that—to give those emotions a visual form.

The official video for North Variation brings together my charcoal drawings with animation by Maria Lanowski. It moves slowly, meditatively—unfolding in a rhythm that mirrors the music. The drawings came from a triptych I made around the same time, North Variations – The Twelve, also rooted in the people behind Federico’s compositions. For this piece, we were both drawn to Lyudmila Khomovna, a member of the Uilta community in Siberia. Federico described her as a kind of warmth in the middle of something harsh—softness that holds on, even in cold conditions. I tried to let that feeling guide the work.

The Twelve is full of these quiet, spacious moments. There’s reflection in it, but also depth, story, movement. When you know the people behind each track, the whole album gets heavier—in a good way. Another piece, The Stars We Follow, really stayed with me. It was inspired by Aoki Hiroyuki, whose practice—somewhere between martial art and dance—felt like a search for direction. Federico called it “chasing the stars,” and I think that says everything.

Charcoal made sense for this world. It lets things stay undefined, open. It can be heavy or light. It lets silence in. In North Variation, I wasn’t trying to illustrate anything. I wanted to create a space that could sit quietly next to the sound, echo it, breathe with it.

This collaboration wasn’t about matching image to music. It was about atmosphere, memory, movement—things you feel more than understand. It’s still one of the most intuitive, meaningful collaborations I’ve done.

JC