Reflektor2 January 30, 2013

Venue/Location: Peel Hall, Peel Building, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT
Event type: Music
Description:

Concert and Masterclass

Wednesday 30 January, concert 1.00 – 2.10pm, masterclass 2.20 – 3.20pm

Admission: Free

Jan Kopinski Tenor Saxophone

Steve Iliffe Piano

Jan and Steve perform their original score live to the film ‘Berlin: Symphony of a Great City’, director Walter Ruttmann, 1927, Germany.

REFLEKTOR2 is a poignant dawn to dusk portrait of 1920s Berlin, combining documentary, abstract and lyrical imagery. With its masterly camerawork and assured editing, ‘Berlin’ was hugely successful on its release, and that rarity, a film both popular and avant-garde.

Making music to ‘Berlin’

“Writing and performing to this seminal city film from a 21st century perspective is always hugely different than from a contemporary viewpoint. Following those celebratory mute, interwar testimonies, the terrifying weight of history upon that city not only brings poignancy and emotion to any musical thought, but adds a personal and human dimension.

“For us ‘Berlin’ is more than a city film, beautifully created and framed though it is, it also demands intensity of feeling through performance as the kaleidoscopic imagery captures the moment, and lives of its people before the storms to come. How to respond to its vigour and its ultimate sadness at the same time is the challenge.

“We attempt to portray this by playing with intimacy and, at times, abandonment.

“As ‘BERLIN’ moves through its five acts we trace elements in the music that aim to define the tension and dynamics of the city: a ‘modern age’ of machines and technology, of speed and delight in kinetics. What gives us the musical blood in this is the heartfelt details of people’s lives – the child, the streetwalker, the theatre, the bourgeois rich, the horse collapsing in the street.”

Kopinski and Iliffe have a long musical partnership ranging from cult-like contemporary jazz groups, (PINSKI ZOO), to music to image (Mirrors) and silent film (‘Earth’, ‘Nosferatu’). Their composing and improvising skills, textural sense and interaction in performance bring real empathy to the silent film.

www.jankopinski.com

www.facebook.com/JanKopinski

Official Website: http://www.salford.ac.uk/home-page/events/events/reflektor2