Metropolis

[silent film, Fritz Lang, Germany 1927]
live-music: kapillar by IzP [2006]

duration: 145'

(first performed: oct 4th 2006, Essen / Germany)

FILM:
The population of the city of Metropolis lives in a highly divided class society: the workers toil and live deep beneath the city itself, while the rich and powerful reside above ground in luxury and opulence. A forbidden love between poor and rich knocks the system out of balance. The inventor Rotwang, disenchanted with life, creates the first mechanical human and, in bringing it to life with thoughts of revenge, incites the workers to a revolt that collapses the class system.

MUSIC:
Huge spaces were orchestrated with concocted sounds that are reminiscent of orchestral instruments: a hybrid, Interzone sound-orchestra spectrum that is played by two musicians. The machines continuously scream upwards from the depths. This is not Death Metal, nor are there brass or string instruments, nevertheless the suspicion arises that one hears all these things. In any event, does it sound acoustic, or rather electro-symphonic? The formal construction of the composition is (almost always!) certainly like that of an orchestral piece.

Orchestral music for amplified accordion, electric bass, live electronics, prerecorded sound, keyboard, toy megaphone, amplified thundersheet, milk foamer, spring drum, distorted voice, and simulated choir.

[translated by Eric Flesher / USA]