Simon Christensen and Bill Morrison’s art film TRIBUTES – Pulse has been selected for the prestigious film festival in Rotterdam!
International Film Festival Rotterdam runs from January 25 to February 5, 2012 and TRIBUTES – Pulse will be shown 3 times during that period of time. First viewing will be Thursday January 26 at 4.15pm and soon after the film will be shown during the course of the weekend January 28-29 at 7.30pm and 5.30pm.
The International Film Festival Rotterdam programme is out now!
TRIBUTES – Pulse was world premiered at The Royal Danish Playhouse on June 16, 2011, where the music was performed live.
About TRIBUTES – Pulse
Through image and sound Morrison and Christensen have created a requiem for the 20th century - the persistence of a pulse, the contractions of the heart.
Christensen originally planned the project as a tribute to four American composers, Charles Ives (1874-1954), Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997), Steve Reich (b. 1936), and Trent Reznor (b. 1965). The project consists of four movements, with the themes of Shifting (slightest change), Multiple (simultaneously different), Across (different directions) and Beat (moving synchronized) respectively corresponding to each composer.
The idea of "Pulse" is explored in both the music and the film. Christensen studied the role of Pulse - the rhythmic recurrence of vibration - in the music of these four composers. But pulse is also explored as a recurring theme in life, civilization, and nature. Using decayed archival film, Morrison tells a story from the remains of different narratives. The decay of the film creates a pulse in which episodes of comprised imagery appear. The four sections correspond visually to the four elements as a frontier for Man - Water, Earth, Fire and Air. The first glimpses moments in a woman's life. The second cuts between two frontier stories, when buffalo freely roamed the plains. The third examines industry and the loss of the frontier. The fourth explores flight, humankind's attempt to escape to the heavens, and Man's inevitable return to earth.
Partners: The Royal Danish Theatre and Montana
Sponsored by: Statens Kunstråd, Dansk Komponist Forening and Koda
Music released by: Dacapo Records
Musicians: Kundi Bombo, Christina Åstrand; violin, Peter Navarro-Alonso; sopranino, soprano and tenor saxophones, Simon Christensen; percussion, zither and electronics