We are excited to present Harry Smith’s “Heaven and Earth Magic” with a live soundtrack score by Halster! “Heaven and Earth Magic” (1962, 66 min) is a landmark in American art film, of the aesthetic tradition between his predecessor, Max Ernst’s surrealistic collage books, and the more recent director Terry Gilliam’s playful animations for Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Harry Smith - American avantgarde filmmaker, musical anthropologist, mystic and eccentric - worked on “Heaven and Earth Magic” throughout the 1950s, envisioning a 4+ hour runtime and screenings that would include additional color filters, cut out templates and slides. He built this film, his magnum opus, from clippings out of old catalogues, books and 19th century engravings, which would become, as described by one critic, “a mysterious world of alchemical transformations where the objects seem to imply a multitude of possibilities.”
The provenance of the only surviving copy, this 66 minute long, black and white version is in itself legendary. The persistently broke Smith sold this version for next to nothing to his friend, the poet Allen Ginsberg. It was Ginsberg who ensured the 16mm copy's survival when he put it in the trustworthy hands of underground filmmaker Jonas Mekas where it would be preserved in his archive of American experimental films.
At this special screening the Malmö-based improvisation trio Halster create evolving sound worlds, with the help of guitars, percussion and analogue synthesizers, that collide with Harry Smith’s symbolically loaded and esoteric visual language.
Film scholar Oskar Hallberg will open the evening with a short presentation of the maverick Harry Smith’s life and work.
- - - - - - - -
Originally strictly a guitar trio, Halster consists of members Anders Lindsjö, Mattias Nihlén and Adam Persson (otherwise active in groups like VED, Bomb and others) Since 2008 the trio has been meeting almost every Monday to practice freely improvised music.
2020 the 5CD box set “Virtuous Mondays” was released on Konvoj Records, with a long list of guest musicians who over the years have frequented the open Monday sessions.
On a number of occasions Halster have played live improvised music to films, among others “Lassie’s Great Adventure” (1963) and David Lynch’s “The Grandmother” (1970).
- - - - - - - -
Words about Halster:
“The music often sounds as if subatomic particles are colliding in the vacuum of space. Their language is the mechanical, intelligent life, ghost-in-the-machine type. Communicating by way of bolts of energy and passing satellites.”
– Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
“Halster are a must for guitar freaks worldwide.”
– Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
This event is a collaboration between Hypnos Theatre and Film i Malmö with support from Malmö Stad and Region Skåne AND Konvoj Records supported by Statens kulturråd.
Image Copyright and Courtesy of Anthology Film Archives, New York
Event Venue
Hypnos Theatre, Norra Grängesbergsgatan 15, SE-214 50 Malmö, Sverige,Malmö, Sweden
Tickets
