New Sounds Live: Miners' Hymns Live

[John Bailey]

If you ever get a chance to see this film on the big screen, jump on
it. Caught it last year after having been a fan of the score for some
time and it was unforgettable.

Here's the final sequence on youtube. I've watched it dozens of times
but the crest still raises the hair on my neck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Rfkhg7s_M

In fact, much of Johann Johannsson's work might be of interest to P
readers. Lots of resonant themes - early computing, rockets, mad
capitalist utopian dreams, a world laid waste.

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 7:30 AM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> New sounds, as many here know, is a wonderful program.
>
> From his earliest fiction P has shown an interest in the people who go
> underground.
>
>
>
> From the New Sounds Live concerts, we'll hear “The Miners’ Hymns,” a film
> score from the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.  The work is a
> brass-heavy elegy to the coal mining culture in Northeast England, with the
> brass elements hearkening back to the colliery bands, which used to be the
> local entertainment.
>
> Bill Morrison’s footage, which he refers to as his first real documentary,
> is made up of clips from British TV news coverage of ‘80s miners strikes,
> and National Coal Board promotional films, framed by slow, stately flyover
> shots of where these Durham collieries used to be.  Listen to most of
> Jóhannsson’s score, as it was performed live by the Wordless Music
> Orchestra, conducted by Gudni Franzson, featuring the composer on
> electronics, all recorded earlier this year at the Silent Film Series at the
> World Financial Center.  Plus, one more leftover work from the Ecstatic
> Music Festival by Jason Treuting called  “pluck, bow, blow” – where all
> three members of janus wield many instruments, including melodica, banjo,
> bowed harp, and the dizi, a Chinese flute.
>
>
>
> http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/2013/jun/26/