Puget Soundtrack: Bill Horist presents Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
This event took place on May 25, 2018
$16 General Admission
$13 NWFF Members
Series -
Puget Soundtrack
Live Music
** Live score! **
About
Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.
“Much of my work as a musician has veered away from the more narrative aspect of conventional song. Sonically, I tend to favor texture, synesthetic elements and oneiric structures over standard Western melody, harmony and rhythm. To that end, what could be more dreamlike than this film? In Dreams, Akira Kurosawa wanders away from more traditional narrative into more expressionistic instances. Although there is a distinct narrative in each of the eight distinct vignettes, atmosphere tends to be the more salient aspect of the film. Having been a longtime fan of Kurosawa’s and given my regular collaborative work in Japan, I feel a certain resonance with that culture and the atmospheres created within. Additionally, the separate vignettes give me the opportunity to create several focused aural environments without the need for recapitulation and varied repetition as mandated by soundtracks to more conventional narrative films.” – Bill Horist on his score for Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
Film description courtesy of Criterion.
Bill Horist
Seattle-based guitarist Bill Horist delivers an idiosyncratic and richly emotive take on the world’s most ubiquitous instrument. He has played on dozens of records and has performed throughout North and Central America, Europe and Japan; collaborating with numerous leading lights in a beguiling range of genres. Perhaps best known for his prepared guitar treatments, his work is widely regarded alongside masters like Fred Frith and Keith Rowe.
He has cultivated a unique voice in a number of styles in the realms of, jazz, rock, folk, and experimental music.