METROPOLIS - Kino Konzert in Tallinn!

The silent film concert Metropolis 2011 was first performed at Tromsø

International Film Festival (TIFF) in January 2011.

BACKGROUND FOR THE PROJECT:

Tromsø International Film Festival has been running projects called Barents‐TIFF and

Barents‐Tour for two years. The concept is to make artistic collaborations between

musicians in the Barents region (northern Scandinavia and north‐west Russia) by

making new music for old classic movies. Nasra, a musician from Tromsø, who after

participating on last years silent movie project initiated by TIFF, wanted to make music

for Metropolis, and so presented the idea. We also decided that the project should

somehow involve one more northern country, and landed on Finland being the third

collaborating country. After some months Martha, the Director of TIFF called with news

about funding for the project. And so, we all put an effort in finding musicians who we

could invite to collaborate in the project. METROPOLIS is a love story, a dystopia and a

critic or comment towards the 20th eras evolving achievements in the technological

fields.

We summoned upon Cleaning Women (Finland) 1, Ivan Afanasyev (Russia) 2, Gudmund

Østgård (Norway) 3 & Nasra (Norway) 4

BRINGING THE PROJECT TO LIFE

We met for the first time on January 13th 2011 at the preproduction studio in Tromsø.

We had all seen copies of the movies, but no music was set before we met and talked

through our ideas, and set off working on the material 24‐hours in 8 days.

The conditions for a good result were laid; we had a good studio, all technical demands

were taken care off, and we were provided with brilliant working space by TIFF 2011

with a good showing of the movie as we went along composing, playing, recording and

watching the movie in loop. The performance took place on Friday 21.st January, at

22.00. The show was sold out, the audience were most satisfied, even The Daily

Telegraph highlighted the event as the most extraordinary Metropolis ever shown, and

the most outstanding performance at TIFF 2011.

WHAT MAKES THIS METROPOLIS SILENT MOVIE DIFFERENT

This Metropolis is different in the way the involved musicians have decided to approach

the movie. The original score for Metropolis is a complete score with orchestral music –

something we find to be underestimating what could be done. Of course, given the

traditions of the 20th century, this is what was expected. This Metropolis, on the other

hand aimed to give the films futuristic scenes, characters, stories and feelings a new

sound. We aimed to give sound to the electric bulbs bursting, the water flowing and

expressing the strong choreographed scenes with our live industrial sound. All played is

live, which makes the movie even more authentic and present for the audience for the

whole period of 2,5 hour it lasts. This all summonses up with the recent discovers of

some of the movies materials that were though lost for 80 years, and which found and gathered to complete the movie as it is when we perform. A compilation, that

gives METROPOLIS a new narrative story and even more interesting ending scenes. We

also ended up dressing in 20th Century clothes, a twist that gives the whole show a good

and historical presentation.

The project received funding from The Norwegian Barents Secretariat, and Tromsa

County Council.

THE MUSICIANS

1 Cleaning Women, FINLAND– a trio famous for their alternative instruments,

consisting of laundry equipments, which have been transformed into bass guitars,

celestas and drum sets. They live and work in Helsinki.

Jari Laakkonen, FINLAND project

technician, and also a part of Cleaning Women.

http://www.cleaningwomen.com/

2 Ivan Afanasyev, RUSSIA – uses simple sounds such as cassettes, diktaphones and toys,

processing these to form his sound and musical universe. Ivan lives and works in

Petrozavodsk and has been collaborating on a handful of noice concerts as well as

improvised live music.

http://ivan.lovecult.org.ru/

3 Gudmund Østgård, NORWAY – has produced music for Television, radio and theatre.

He is now on a soloproject – AUTOBAND, and has been part of various improvisation

concellations as well as electronic and rock music. Lives and works in Tromsø.

http://www.myspace.com/autobandnorway

4 Nasra, NORWAY – has a background from traditional African percussion, classic and

contemporary music. She improvises and sculpts sound, playing vibraphones, marimbas

and processed percussion instruments. She is also a front figure in Nasra & Gaute based

in Tromsø.

www.nasra.no

This Project is supported by Nordic Culture Point.