Chromatic Mysteries: soundtracks 1963-2009 CD by Arthur Cantrill
Arthur and Corinne Cantrill have been making stunning, innovative films for fifty years. Yet little attention has been paid to their soundtracks. Many were realised by Arthur Cantrill using a range of ingenious methods on the cutting edge of electronic and environmental music development in Australia.
**Chromatic Mysteries **documents a selection of Arthur’s soundtracks from as early as 1963 through to his most recent work. These eleven tracks stand alone as sound works in themselves, ranging from subtly composed environmental soundscapes to abstract electronic music and musique concrete. The CD is accompanied by a 16 page booklet featuring extensive liner notes from Arthur, and introduction to Arthur’s sound work by Warren Burt, and vivid colour stills from Cantrill films. **Chromatic Mysteries **is both a testament to the perhaps hitherto-unrecognised talent of Arthur Cantrill as sound artist, and another newly-uncovered story of the development of electronic and experimental music in Australia.
**Chromatic Mysteries **will be launched at a special one-off event hosted by ACMI. The programme includes a selection of short films whose soundtracks are included on the CD, and live soundtracks performed by Melbourne sound artists accompanying some of the Cantrills’ previously-silent films.
Sunday 6 June, 5pm
Studio 1, ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne
Admission $10 (tickets limited book to avoid disappointment)
Live soundtracks performed by
Robin Fox
Undecisive God
Audio Slurry (Jack & Jerry)
The **Chromatic Mysteries: soundtracks 1963-2009 CD **will be released by Shame File Music in June 2010. Pre-orders and audio samples now available.
sold. sounds fucking awesome.
Agreed. I'll be up for that. Shame File always offers up lovely treats.
wow. great job clinton.
Ticket booked, see you scum there.
Great. About time. Arthur is a superbly nice guy and his soundtracks are massively underrated.
I might go to this I've always been a big fan of Arthur Cantrill's films.
Tickets are selling fast, get in quick if risk missing out guys.
Arthur Cantrill and I were interviewed last Sunday night by Greg Wadley on 3CR's Two To The Valley - a fascinating chat where Arthur gave insight into his sound and film making processes, along with great annecdotes about making childrens TV for the ABC in the early 1960s and working with everyone from Pierre Schaeffer to Mr Squiggle! The interview is online here
enjoyed the interview, thanks clinton. looking forward to the launch
Sunday. Tops.
Todaylike. Shall be ace.
That was really most enjoyable. The studio space sounded and looked the part, deck chairs I welcome thee! Seeing the wealth of Cantrill movies over two hours was unnerving. The live music practitioners post intermission provided just the new take I needed to the otherwise silent cinema, Robin Fox as per usual nailed it. Looking forward to the retrospective in Oct.
Seeing the arc of occupied deck chairs pleased me. People sat on the psychedelic beanbags in the second half after being a bit shy at first.
Hellzapoppin, email me re: your Len Lye idea.
Those beanbags did look quite comfy, and the ferals took their place eventually.
Shall do Clinton, it's only in my mind as a wavering concept currently. I'll try and place that onto paper and send it forth.
Review of the Chromatic Mysteries CD here by Vital Weekly, called it A feast for the ears. The sounds are pure, not dated in a specific period and varied...Chromatic Mysteries is highly recommended and one of the best CDs of this year so far.
Get it in Melbourne from Sunshine & Grease or Thomas', and the usual independent outlets, or online from Shame File Music.
what a great CD
'GRAIN OF THE VOICE'
A Retrospective Season
50 Years of Sound and Image by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill
October 10, 17, 24, 31, 2010, at 3.15 pm
ACMI Cinemas
The first screening of the Grain of the Voice film retrospective starts this Sunday (10 Oct) at ACMI from 3:15pm.
Tune into 3RRR-FM's Film Buffs Forecast at 12pm Saturday for an interview with Corinne Cantrill about the retrospective.
This is going to be superb!
First screening of the Canrill Retrospective is at 3:15pm today at ACMI:
Voices of Others
Unclassified 18+
Arthur and Corinne Cantrill
This program of short films by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill draws attention to the 'grain' of voices from many cultures, beginning with Adventure Playground - London in which the cries of children suggest how close humanity remains to the natural world.
Different kinds of indigenous Australian voices accompany Bouddi, shot in the bush near the New South Wales coast, and the slower-paced Two Women, inspired by a Pitjantjatjara song cycle telling of the journey of two ancestral beings along the MacDonnell Ranges. The Pause Between Frames and Ramayana/Legong follow the rhythms of Balinese music and dance.
Filmed a few years before the end of the Cold War, Notes on Berlin: The Divided City is among other things a record of the sound of the German language as spoken by different generations on both sides of the Iron Curtain, intercut with German music from the Baroque period to the twentieth century. Capricornia shows the natural beauty of the North Queensland rainforest overpowered by the gabble of tourism, while The Room of Chromatic Mystery generates a suggestive aural landscape from shortwave radio broadcasts mixed with other sounds including voices from earlier films.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Dr Mark Nicholls (University of Melbourne), Clinton Green (Shame File Music), Jake Wilson (The Age) and Jim Knox (Outlands Ecoplex).
Screening:
Adventure Playground - London 6 mins, 1966
Bouddi 8 mins, 1970
Two Women 32 mins, 1980
The Pause Between Frames 4 mins, 1993
Ramayana/Legong 5 mins, 1995
Notes on Berlin: The Divided City 25 mins, 1986
Capricornia 20 mins, 2001
The Room of Chromatic Mystery 7 mins, 2006
Dates Sun 10 Oct 2010, 3.15pm
Location ACMI Cinemas
Admission Full $14 Concession $11
Very cool. I'll have to try to catch the session on the 17th.
For those in Brisbane, there are screenings of two Cantrill shorts tomorrow in King George Square from 6pm, with live soundtracks by Golden Fur.
Second screening of the Cantrills ''Grain of the Voice'' 50 year film retrsopective is on 3:15pm today at ACMI:
Terra Australis
Unclassified 18+
Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, 105 mins, Australia, 1971-2000, 16mm.
Even when human beings are nowhere in sight, the Australian landscape is full of sounds - the voices of birds and insects, of the wind and of water.
This program of short films by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill ranges across the country from the south Victorian coast in Airey's Inlet, to Central Australia in The Second Journey (to Uluru), Stradbroke Island in Island Fuse and the Grampians in the three-colour separation film Waterfall.
Shot on the ruined site of a failed sheep property in the Black Range of Western Victoria, The Land is Not Empty is an extended meditation on a haunted land, with the camera following the movements of a trudging observer, and a soundscape designed to convey the anguish of loss.
The program concludes with three two-screen works: Interior/Exterior, an exploration of the difference between human and camera vision; Meteor Crater - Gosse Bluff, in which a panning camera traverses the interior of a large crater in Central Australia; and Corporeal, shot in New South Wales bushland at the edge of a rock pool, the camera rising and falling with the filmmaker's breath.
Screening:
Airey's Inlet 5 mins, 1997
The Second Journey (to Uluru) (extract) 18 mins, 1981
Island Fuse 11 mins, 1971
Waterfall 18 mins, 1984
The Land Is Not Empty 26 mins, 2000
Interior/Exterior 3 mins,1978
Meteor Crater - Gosse Bluff 6 mins, 1978
Corporeal 18 mins, 1983
The program will be introduced by Clinton Green (Shame File Music)
Dates Sun 17 Oct 2010, 3.15pm
Location Studio 1
Admission Full $14 Concession $11
Final screening on Sunday afternoon of the Cantrill Grain Of The Voice retrospective:
Harry Hooton: The Outsider Poet
Unclassified 18+
Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, 106 mins, Australia, 1965-1970, 16mm. Source: Arthur and Corinne Cantrill.
Inspired by the philosophy of the maverick poet Harry Hooton (1908-1961) - a key influence on the Sydney Push - the 1970 feature Harry Hooton is dominated on its soundtrack by the assured, arresting voice of the poet himself, drawn from tape recordings made shortly before his death.
Hooton defined art as ''the communication of emotion to matter'' and the Cantrills mobilise an encyclopedic array of techniques, from collage to pure abstraction, to visualise his dream of a world where humanity transcends itself via the machine.
The program includes five closely-related short films made around the same period, which in most cases contain footage revisited in Harry Hooton: Robert Klippel - Junk Sculpture No. 3 1963, one of a series of studies of Klippel's work; Imprints, an experiment in ''persistence of vision'' made with the mime artist Will Spoor; Fud 69, a fast-paced record of a student drama festival at Australian National University; Eikon, in which a serene image of a young woman (Sharman Mellick) is flanked by side panels of movement; and the eerie Home Movie - A Day In The Bush with the Cantrills' young son Ivor in a central role.
Screening:
Robert Klippel - Junk Sculpture No.3, 1963 4 mins, 1964
Imprints 4 mins, 1969
Fud 69 6 mins, 1969
Eikon 4 mins, 1969
Home Movie - A Day In The Bush 4 mins, 1969
Harry Hooton 83 mins, 1970
Dates Sun 31 Oct 2010, 3.15pm
Location ACMI Cinemas
Admission Full $14 Concession $11
Today at ACMI from 3:15pm
Woo! Just saw that ACMI's got a Cantrills exhibition on, Tuesday 8 March - Sunday 5 June 2011.
Cantrill Light Years exhibition at ACMI opens today.
Bonza! I'll be heading to that next week.