Ron Geesin: An Improvised Life

This one went below my radar; a documentary on Ron Geesin called "An Improvised Life" (premiered in October 2015). It features contributions from Pete Townshend, Peter Gabriel, David Gilmour, Robert Wyatt and Bridget St. John.

The film is going to be shown at Filmic in Bristol on May 8, with a Q & A with Ron Geesin.

Psychedelic Brittannia

Look out for a new documentary named "Psychedelic Brittannia" on BBC Four!

"The film is narrated by Nigel Planer with contributions and freshly-shot performances from artists who lived and breathed the psych revolution - Paul McCartney, Ginger Baker, Robert Wyatt, Roy Wood, the Zombies, Mike Heron, Vashti Bunyan, Joe Boyd, Gary Brooker, Arthur Brown, Kenney Jones, Barry Miles, the Pretty Things and the Moody Blues".

Some of the "freshly-shot" performances are interviews I presume?

Voice — Sculpting Sound

Seek out the the new film "Voice — Sculpting Sound with Maja S. K. Ratkje" (2015), made by IJ. Biermann (writer, director) and Kai Miedendorp (director of photography)!

You will meet Maja Ratkje as composer, solo artist, band member (SPUNK, POING) and collaborator with loads of different musicians, producing improv, noise, children´s opera, contemporary classical, sound installations, political songs etc (good music for short).

Thankfully the talking is not made up of hundreds of short interviews (as may happen in documentaries), but her own voiceover.

All through the film there are beautiful shots of nature, quite suitable for an artist taking a stand against pollution and the power of oil companies.

The film premiered at Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, and should absolutely be shown at more festivals.

The DVD version also has an interesting audiocommentary track with Ben Knight in conversation with Ratkje and Biermann.

If you want the DVD, here is a message from the director (a bit edited by me):
"Yes, I do sell the DVD, so far I only do it myself, since there is not „official“ release yet — only through myself (= Myrland Films). So far the only option to buy the DVD is through my e-mail (ijb -at- illogical -dot- de), via PayPal or other ways of payment I am happy to send the DVD out to anyone in the world! I also have Blu-Ray Discs, but I have to produce them one by one, but I can offer them to anyone who is interested in a higher visual quality (together with the 5.1 mix and the various sound options of course)."

Also see Eyal Hareuveni´s review over at The Free Jazz Collective".

So That You Can Live

Thanks to Wire magazine on Twitter I found this info about the screening of two Cinema Action films "Squatters" (1970) and "So That You Can Live" (1981) at the British Film Institute today.

The soundtrack to "So That You Can Live" is music by Robert Wyatt, Scritti Politti and Lindsay Cooper.

Registered users in UK libraries, colleges and universities may watch clips over here.

This is what I wrote in an old blog post on Neil Taylor´s Rough Trade book back in 2010:

"Green Gartside (Scritti Politti) mentions a soundtrack he made with Robert Wyatt for a Cinema Action film called "So that you can live", about striking miners in Wales (Lindsay Cooper is also represented). I checked with Michael King´s "Wrong Movements. A Robert Wyatt history" (SAF 1994), and a "slow tempo performance of "Born Again Cretin"" seems to be on the soundtrack".

Taking The Dog For A Walk

"Taking The Dog For A Walk" (2014) a documentary by Antoine Prum, mapping the scene of British Improvised Music, past and present.

"With Steve Beresford, Adam Bohman, Eileen Boyes, Karen Brookman-Bailey, Sarah Gail Brand, John Butcher, Lol Coxhill, Rhodri Davies, Max Eastley, John Edwards, Alexander Hawkins, Caroline Kraabel, Dominic Lash, Phil Minton, Thurston Moore, Maggie Nicols, Steve Noble, Eddie Prévost, John Russell, Mark Sanders, Victor Schonfield, Alan Tomlinson, Roger Turner, Alex Ward, Trevor Watts, Veryan Weston, Alan Wilkinson, Richard Williams, and many others".

I sure hope I get a chance to see this one!

In April 2013 we had a blog post on the Sunny Murray documentary "Sunny´s Time Now" by Antoine Prum.

Taking The Dog For A Walk - Teaser from PTD World Sales on Vimeo.

Playa de Formentor

How about this one!? Daevid Allen & Robert Wyatt are extras in the Spanish film ‘Playa de Formentor’ (1964), directed by Germán Lorente! (YouTube).

They seem like cool guys and Daevid Allen even enjoys a dance (or do we expect some trouble coming up?).


Here is another clip (10 minutes), but without Allen and Wyatt.

Has anybody out there seen the full movie, and spotted our heroes in more scenes?


Added 10 February 2015:

And the full movie is up on YouTube today.

Documentary: The Killing Of Tony Blair

So Robert Wyatt is making some new music?

Yesterday George Galloway tweeted this: "music legends Robert Wyatt and Steve Finnerty are collaborating on the sound track for The Killing of Tony Blair @TheBlairDoc coming soon".

"The killing of Tony Blair" is a Kickstarter crowd funded documentary.

Friday Night And Sunday Afternoon (Bergen)

I caught Bergen street artist RC working Friday night (photo OK for him), and checked out his finished work Sunday afternoon.

Anyone recognize what film the image is taken from?


Added 22 September:

The image is from the movie "Come and see" (Elem Klimov, 1985),

Common (Jimmy McGovern)

Over at What´s Rattlin´ i found some info on a BBC One aired drama called "Common", written by Jimmy McGovern, and with a soundtrack featuring two songs sung by Robert Wyatt, and with music by Adrian Johnston.

Several messages on Twitter on the case, seem to indicate that the songs were recorded for "Common", with no plans for release in any other format. Oh, come on!

The two songs seem to have been Paul Laurence Dunbar´s "The Debt" and Elizabeth Drew Barstod Stoddard´s "One morn I left him in his bed".

Or what? Do you have any info?

Romantic Warriors III - Canterbury Tales

Would you be interested to help funding the film "Romantic Warriors III - Canterbury Tales"?
Then head on over to IndieGoGo for more info on the film and how to help funding.

The film makers promise they will "will guide you through the amazing history, development of the Canterbury school of progressive-rock and its influence on modern bands".

Forever young

"Forever Young" - a documentary on how rock & roll grew up, and got old and wrinkled, is on YouTube.

Interviews with Robert Wyatt, Richard Thompson and a bunch of other people.

Pulp Fiction Meets Ivor Cutler

Cockadoodledon´t!

Northern Sounds

Trailer for documentary Northern sounds from Tarquinia Films on Vimeo.

How about this? A movie on "Northern Sounds" - "a road-movie on the trail of the Nordic music scene", available on Vimeo on Demand. I might watch this one.

Directed by Alain Boegner.

Part 1: Norway-Sweden
with Mental Overdrive, Bugge Wesseltoft, Katzenjammer, Thomas Dybdahl, Ost & Kjex, Mari Boine, Dungen, Wildbirds &Peacedrums, Junip feat. José Gonzaléz.

Part 2: Denmark-Sweden (Malmö)-Finland-Iceland
with Who Made Who, Under Byen, Peter Von Poehl, Grand Avenue, Cirkus feat. Neneh Cherry, Olafur Arnalds Ben Frost, Finntroll, Eternal Erection, Lau Nau, Gus Gus.

Soft Machine live 1969 at Actual Music Festival

If you are interested, follow the links to The Witchwood Records or YouTube for some bootleg material from Soft Machine´s concert at Actuel Music Festival, Amougies, Belgium (28 October 1969).
And just for the record: I have (of course) not uploaded any bootlegs, even if my photo of Snurre´s Wyatt stencil is on the "video" on YouTube.

According to Graham Bennet´s "Soft Machine Out-Bloody-Rageous" (SAF 2005) this was the Soft Machine crew at the festival: Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, Mark Charig, Lyn Dobson, Elton Dean and Nick Evans.

A 75 min long film called "Amougies Music Power" was made during the festival, and it both opens with ("Moon in June") and ends with ("Hibou Anemone and Bear") Soft Machine.

I found the poster on the Luiz Woodstock blog, and if you wonder why it says Paris on the poster, the festival was moved to Belgium on short notice!

Michael King adds this very important(??) info in "Wrong Movements. A Robert Wyatt History" (SAF 1994) : "For this performance, the microphone line for Robert´s snare drum was fed through an Echoplex". Yes!

Sunny Murray

Sunny's time now from NI VU NI CONNU on Vimeo.

Looking for some jazz videos the other night, I happened to watch a teaser for the film "Sunny´s Time Now" by Antoine Prum, a documentary on the drummer Sunny Murray, and I was happy to see they had also interviewed Robert Wyatt, among lots of other people, on what Murray had meant to them.

Let´s steal from Vimeo:

"Featuring a series of interviews with key time witnesses (Val Wilmer, Cecil Taylor, Tony Bevan, Bobby Few, Sonny Simmons, François Tusques a.o.) and extensive concert footage, the film adopts a European point of view to reassess the complex relationships between the libertarian music movement and the political climate of an era whose revolutionary echoes still resonate today."

And surprise!, surprise! you may watch the whole film right here! Recommended!
Robert Wyatt is on around 79 minutes, under the title "End of an ear".

Lol Coxhill & Alex Ward

Lol Coxhill & Alex Ward @ Just Not Cricket! from NI VU NI CONNU on Vimeo.

I already had a blog post on Just Not Cricket!, a three day long festival focusing on British improv, held in Berlin in 2011.

Someone is making a film on the history of the British improv scene (to be released in 2013!), and a couple of great videos from this one are uploaded on Vimeo. Watch Lol Coxhill and Alex Ward at Just Not Cricket! in this very blog, and run all the way over to Vimeo for Tom Arthurs, Steve Beresford,Phil Minton and Eddie Prévost.

Arianna Blu

Today a dramatic short movie called "Arianna Blu", made by Nicola Piovesan during Mon Film Festival.

The music is made by Soft Machine Legacy, who also have a new album out on MoonJune called "Burden of Proof". Musicians: John Etheridge, Roy Babbington, John Marshall and Theo Travis.

More info on the movie and the music on YouTube.

Victoria

The first screening of Torun Lian´s movie "Victoria", based on Knut Hamsun´s novel from 1898, will happen March 1st.

I am happy to inform you all that the soundtrack is made by Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Gaute Storaas and Arve Henriksen.

Das schlafende Mädchen

It seems like Robert Wyatt has been working on the soundtrack for Rainer Kirberg´s film "Das schlafende Mädchen" that was released a couple of days ago(IMDB on the film).

Info from YouTube:

"For our cinema release of The Sleeping Girl in Germany we composed a new soundtrack!

Especially for the new soundtrack, we founded the project Sleeping Men. It consists of electronic music producer and composer Daniel Paul Behnemann (founder of Berlin House label Cabinet Records), co-producer and music publisher Tøni Schifer (Crippled Dick Hot Wax) and director Rainer Kirberg. Further leading composers were Sascha Gottschalk (Pulsar Mod Club / Thief) and Moritz Reichelt (Der Plan), important protagonist of German New Wave (Neue Deutsche Welle).

With Karl Blake (Shock Headed Peters), another influencial musician contributed to the project's anchoring in an important era of pop history. Finally, the legendary Robert Wyatt (The Soft Machine) strongly supported the musical bridge into the early 1970s".

And a Happy 68th birthday to Robert Wyatt today!

Todd Terje: Inspector Norse

Kristoffer Borgli & Todd Terje´s: "Inspector Norse" was elected best Scandinavian music video at the Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) 2012!
Sweet one!

Artist: Todd Terje
Title: Inspector Norse
Album: It's The Arps EP
Label: Full Pupp
Video: Kristoffer Borgli

Watch all the nominated videos right here:

NORWAY:
Lars Vaular og Sondre Lerche - Øynene Lukket (Regi: Andrew Amorim)
Todd Terje - Inspector Norse (Regi: Kristoffer Borgli)
Mikhael Paskalev - I Spy (Regi: André Chocron)
John Olav Nilsen og gjengen - Eurosport (Regi: Kim Hiorthøy)
Casiokids - Det haster! (Regi: Kristoffer Borgli)

SWEDEN:
Saint Lou Lou - Maybe You (Regi: Philippe Tempelman)
The Sound of Arrows - Wonders (Regi: Mattias Johansson og Oskar Gullstrand)
Miike Snow - The Wave (Regi: Andreas Nilsson)
Korallreven - Sa Sa Samoa (Regi: Filip Nilsson)
First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar (Regi: Mats Udd)

DENMARK:
Karin Park - Fryngies (Regi: Tore Frandsen)
Sleep Party People - A Dark God Heart (Regi: Marie Limkilde)
Tomas Barfod - Broken Glass (Regi: Martin Garde)
Trentemøller - Sycamore Feeling (Regi: Diana Tørsløv)
When Saints Go Machine - Parix (Regi: Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen)