August 2018
Hello For this very special show I’ll be performing live scores to two short films by influential French filmmaker, Alain Resnais: Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) and Le chant du Styrène (1959). I was honoured that Resnais himself gave me his blessing to re-score these films, wondering, rather amusingly at the time, why anyone would want to watch these ‘commercial’ films! Toute la mémoire du monde takes the viewer through the wonders of Bibliothèque nationale de France, whilst Le chant du Styrène is an extraordinary short documentary film commissioned by French industrial group Pechiney to highlight the merits of plastics. In addition, I’ll be performing a version of 52 Spaces, a popular work of mine from 2002. Commissioned by The British School at Rome for film director Michelangelo Antonioni’s 90th birthday in 2002, 52 Spaces uses sounds of the city of Rome and elements of The Eclipse (1962) to create a soundtrack of an image of a city suspended in time, anonymous and surreal. I took the closing section of the film, a two-minute series of 52 framed images, and slowed it down to a kind of mnemonic slide show, and accompany it with sounds from the original minimal score and sound design, whilst recomposing an entirely new viewing of the film, offering up a contemplative and mysterious chronicle, a space for contemplation and reflection as the soundtrack weaves an imaginary narrative. And yes, audience members have been known to fall asleep through this 🙂 In Doubt, Shadow Him! a new album by hifiklub + Lee Ranaldo came out on 6th July on Joyful Noise Recordings, accompanied by a documentary film by Arnaud Maguet, and I am honoured to have taken a small part in this release. I’ve been friends with Lee from when he was still blasting away in Sonic Youth many years ago so it’s joy to offer some sounds and production to this amazing new album. Reviews have been extremely enthusiastic , and even recently featured in Rolling Stone magazine as one of their Top Ten albums to listen to alongside RP Boo and Future. Treat yourself to a copy. As ever, it’s the summer so it’s slower, lighter and a chance to breathe. I’ll be travelling a lot over the next months to come, with all manner of quirky and adventurous new projects in development, so I wish you all a lovely summer! Now back to choosing another bad movie on board 😀 Until next month ::: listen ::: ::: read ::: ::: watch ::: |