03.10 / 19:30
Silent movies with live music / PREMIERE
ZAWA ZAWA / LISA NORDSTROM (SE) / MIKA TAKEHARA (SE/JP) MAYA DEREN’s MOVIES
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943), 14’ / AT LAND (1944), 14’ / RITUAL IN TRANFIGURED TIME (1946), 14’ / MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE, 1948 , 10’ / THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT (1959), 15’.
ZAWA ZAWA consists of two internationally acclaimed musicians and artists: Lisa Nordström (flute, voice, electronics) / Mika Takehara (vibraphone, percussion). A dynamic meeting between two very expressive and highly individual artistic spheres. Musically, they move seamlessly between composition and improvisation in an organic exploration of acoustic and electronic sonic landscapes.
American avant-garde legend and pioneering female filmmaker, Maya Deren has been fascinating generations of movie directors for her kinetic and graphic experiments. New York Times dance critic John Martin coined the term “choreocinema” to describe the way Deren linked dance and film. HERE:2021 will present five of her movies. From her surreal debut film MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, in a dreamlike and poetic psychodrama, to the process of filmmaking as a form of ritual, in her second work AT LAND: the inimitable study of social rituals and the human body’s place in nature. The third film, RITUAL IN TRANFIGURED TIME, concentrates on the art of greeting in social circles with a fluid camera work that captures the viewer. According to experimental movie director Stan Brakhage, MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE is Deren’s most personal film. As he notices: “She doesn’t appear in it, but, she is the camera, she’s moving, she’s breathing in relation to this dancer.” In the final film THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT was realised in collaboration with choreographer Antony Tudor, who brought a young crew of ballet dancers from the Metropolitan Opera. For Deren, it was a scientific and astrological film with the most beautiful abstract ballet performance, which touches on the themes of gravity and natural history. It’s her last completed film.
PRESS
Mika Takehara
“Mika's music gives a feeling, a state, a being that both accompanies, comforts and nibbles on one's inner self.” Gaffa
“Percussionist Mika Takehara creates music that moves beyond genre boundaries where the tones flow between pop and classic.” Musik i syd
“Mika Takehara creates spherical sounds, rhythmic clarity and not least silence meet”
Lisa Nordström
" ... like looking at the sun through smoky glass. Behind all the sounds is such a sweetness that a human heart is only capable of taking in a little at a time. “Fireworks and the Ocean” is a filter for sweetness, is a filter for sweetness, a filter that allows the viewer to listen, feel and be filled with both melancholy and sunshine." Tobias Norström, Soundofmusic
".... a piece of painfully beautifully packaged music of master class ... her combination of polished pop and curious improvisation, of experimental electronica and acoustic instrumentation, it keeps one enchanted from the first to the last minute ...” Fredrik Franzén, Groove
“(Film) Sonica Sequence seeks to unfold an immersive form of musical improvisation, and in that process the film turns into an masterful exploration of music’s potential to build bridges between cultures. A visually breathtaking film where the fixed camera allows you to disappear into a meditative and state between image and sound.” Adam Thorsmark // CPH:DOX
“This film is a spectacular sonic work of art…one of the best I’ve ever seen! I am absolutely blown away… The film as a conceptual whole is nothing short of amazing.” Bernie Krause // Wild Sanctuary
CREDITS
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943)
Directed: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid Screenplay: Maya Deren Cinematography: Alexander Hammid Film Editing: Maya Deren Starring: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid. Length: 14’
AT LAND (1944)
Directed: Maya Deren Screenplay: Maya Deren Cinematography: Alexander Hammid, Hella Heyman Film Editing: Maya Deren Starring: John Cage, Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, Hella Heyman, Parker Tyler. Length: 14’
RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME (1946)
Directed: Maya Deren Screenplay: Maya Deren Cinematography: Hella Heyman Film Editing: Maya Deren Starring: Rita Christiani, Maya Deren, Anaïs Nin, Frank Westbrook, Gore Vidal. Length: 14’
MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE (1949)
Directed: Maya Deren Screenplay: Chao Li Chi, Maya Deren Cinematography: Maya Deren Starring: Chao Li Chi. Length: 10’
THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT (1958)
Directed: Maya Deren Cinematography/Film Editing: Maya Deren Starring: Don Freisinger, Richard Sandifer, Patricia Ferrier, Bud Bready, Genaro Gomez, Barbara Levin, Richard Englund, Rosemary Williams, Phillip Salem. Length: 15’
BIOS
ZAWA ZAWA’s work has been presented in Tokyo and Ashikaga / Japan, Södra Teatern / Stockholm, Palladium / Malmö, Nefertiti / Gothenburg, CPH: DOX / Copenhagen and was last heard in a two-hour live broadcasted concert in Swedish Radio P2 in March 2021.
Mika Takehara
Mika Takehara is one of the leading classical marimba and percussion soloists, originates from Japan and now based in Stockholm. Mika Takehara has played as a soloist with orchestras world wide and 2022 she will do world premiere of Johannes Janssons Marimba Concerto with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
Mika is also composing and playing live electronic music and on her latest album Silence, she moves limitless between different music categories.
Besides of the classical solo career Mika is playing with DUO KLAKIMARA with Klara Hellgren and the electronic duo ZAWAZAWA with Lisa Nordstrom and Grammy award winning Saito Kinen Orchestra.
Mikas artistic work is presented at the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts in Stockholm.
Lisa Nordström
Internationally acclaimed musician, composer and producer based in Svenska Grammofonstudion in Gothenburg.
Nordström works in a wide spectrum of genres: improvisation, electronic music, defragmented pop and experimental sound art. In her music electronic instruments are mixed with acoustic sounds such as voice, bass flute, zither and sounding objects.
She has toured in Europe, Africa, South, North and Central America and Asia.
Nordström plays with Mika Takehara in the duo ZAWA ZAWA and in a duo with Michala Østergaard-Nielsen. Nordström has a past in the electronica duo Midaircondo.
In 2017, Nordström premiered the music documentary “Sonica Sequence”, a film in which she performs site-specific improvised sessions, with several musicians, at new venues around the world. She recently scored the award winning documentary “Children of the Enemy” and, later this year, she will release the solo album “Engram”.